http://github.com/dylang/node-rssRSS for NodeSun, 15 Sep 2019 10:01:27 GMTAfter Moscow, asylum in Germany or France?
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/snowden-memoir-casts-him-as-privacy-prophet/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/snowden-memoir-casts-him-as-privacy-prophet/<p>With an enormous global publishing juggernaut, former CIA and National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden is attempting yet again to tilt the narrative about his gigantic theft and dissemination of US intelligence secrets to show him as a privacy prophet.</p>
<p>Snowden&#8217;s memoirs, entitled <em>Permanent Record</em>, will be published Tuesday in about 20 countries, just as world attention is focused on public and private efforts to capture, save and use everyone&#8217;s electronic communications by entities ranging from the People&#8217;s Republic of China – which makes no bones about what it does – to Facebook.</p>
<p>In a video on his Twitter account, Snowden said last week that &#8220;everything that we do now lasts forever, not because we want to remember but because we&#8217;re no longer allowed to forget. Helping to create that system is my greatest regret.&#8221;</p>
<p>Although Snowden is praised by his defenders as a whistleblower and a privacy advocate, the United States accuses him of endangering national security. Espionage charges could send him to prison for decades. Avoiding those charges is the reason he has been living in Russia since leaking a trove of classified documents showing the scope of post-9/11 US government surveillance.</p>
<p>&#8220;Snowden and his defenders claim that he is a whistleblower, but he isn&#8217;t,&#8221; California Congressman Adam Schiff told US National Public Radio. Schiff was ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee in 2016 when it issued a report citing over 20 examples of damage to national security from Snowden&#8217;s actions.</p>
<p>&#8220;Most of the material he stole had nothing to do with American privacy, and its compromise has been of great value to America&#8217;s adversaries and those who mean to do America harm,&#8221; Schiff told NPR.</p>
<h4>Boffo abroad</h4>
<p>Largely but by no means entirely without honor in his own country, Snowden has had far more success peddling his prophet narrative in Europe than in his native United States, polls show. Now, accordingly, he has renewed his plea for asylum in France or Germany.</p>
<p>Recalling that he had already applied for French asylum in 2013 under former president Francois Hollande, Snowden told France Inter radio he hoped President Emmanuel Macron would grant him that right, AFP reported.</p>
<p>&#8220;The saddest thing of this whole story is that the only place an American whistleblower has the chance to be heard is not in Europe but here,&#8221; in Russia, Snowden said in a trailer of the interview to be broadcast in its entirety Monday.</p>
<p>To date, more than a dozen countries have turned down requests to take in the 36-year-old, leading him to question their reasoning and &#8220;the system we live in.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Protecting whistleblowers is not a hostile act,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Interviewed by Germany&#8217;s Die Welt he talked on and on about his wish to go to Germany and argued that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and US President Donald Trump &#8220;are the products of a broken system.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;He thinks of himself as a Cassandra warning against the multiple evils of the surveillance state, both domestically and internationally,&#8221; said an expat German financial professional living in Hong Kong – the city to which Snowden flew to turn his purloined intelligence over to reporters for the Guardian and the Washington Post.</p>
<p>&#8220;The reason this resonates with Germans, in particular, including myself, is because of a generation of west Germans and two generations of east Germans having lived under such surveillance systems that are a colossal threat to freedom,&#8221; the man told Asia Times. &#8220;There&#8217;s very little doubt in my mind that the entire spectrum of activities from Google to NSA is the heart of darkness. I strongly hope, and believe it is very likely, that Germany will extend asylum.&#8221;</p>
<p>He added, &#8220;One good thing about the combination of 5g and quantum communications is that all that NSA crap will very soon be useless hardware and – as a top US expert on it put it recently – one nice day soon all of China &#8216;will go dark&#8217; for the Maryland spooks.&#8221;</p>
Huthi rebels from Yemen claim responsibility for attacks on Saturday, but US blames Iran as Saudi output drops
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/yemeni-drones-spark-fires-at-saudi-aramco-oil-depots/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/yemeni-drones-spark-fires-at-saudi-aramco-oil-depots/<p><span class="s1">US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has blamed Iran for Saturday&#8217;s attack on Saudia Arabian oilfield facilities, while Riyadh has vowed to respond, raising tensions in the Middle East.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Saudi Arabia said it was ready to respond to drone attacks claimed by Iran-aligned Yemeni rebels on two major oil facilities, which has severely disrupted production, as Washington blamed Tehran for the strike.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">US Secretary of State Pompeo blamed Tehran for the attack, saying there was no evidence it was launched from Yemen. </span><span class="s1">&#8220;Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world&#8217;s energy supply,&#8221; Pompeo said on Twitter.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">&#8220;The United States will work with our partners and allies to ensure that energy markets remain well supplied and Iran is held accountable for its aggression,&#8221; the top US diplomat added.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The strikes sparked fires at the state-owned Aramco oil plants and prompted furious condemnation from the top US diplomat, who blamed Tehran for the strike.</span></p>
<p>Meanwhile, on Sunday Iran dismissed as &#8220;meaningless&#8221; the US accusations that it was behind the drone attacks on Saudi oil installations, suggesting Washington was seeking a pretext to retaliate against the Islamic republic.</p>
<p>&#8220;Such fruitless and blind accusations and remarks are incomprehensible and meaningless,&#8221; foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi was quoted as saying in a statement.</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Huge palls of smoke rose into the sky after the pre-dawn attacks on Abqaiq and Khurais, two key Aramco facilities in eastern Saudi Arabia as the giant prepares for a much-anticipated stock listing.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The drones triggered multiple explosions, forcing state-owned Aramco to temporarily suspend production at the two facilities, interrupting about half of the company&#8217;s total output, Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The Iran-linked Huthi rebels said they launched &#8220;a large-scale operation involving 10 drones&#8221; on the facilities, the group&#8217;s Al-Masirah television reported.</span></p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-379949" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Saudi-drone-attack-sites.jpg" alt="" width="512" height="484" /></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Following a phone call between US President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the White House condemned the attacks on &#8220;infrastructure vital to the global economy.”</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Prince Mohammed had earlier issued a statement saying the kingdom was &#8220;willing and able&#8221; to respond to this &#8220;terrorist aggression,” according to Saudi state media.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Washington&#8217;s condemnation of Tehran throws into doubt expectations that Trump is trying to arrange a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the upcoming United Nations assembly.</span></p>
<figure id="attachment_379947" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-379947" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Aramco-facility.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1063" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Aramco-facility.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Aramco-facility-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Aramco-facility-1568x1042.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Saudi security guards outside the Aramco oil processing plant in Abqaiq, reportedly the world&#8217;s largest, in the oil-rich Eastern Province in February 2006. Drones were used to attack this facility on Saturday. Photo: AFP</figcaption></figure>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Saudi interior ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki said there were no casualties in the attacks in the kingdom&#8217;s Eastern Province.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">But the full extent of the damage was not immediately clear as reporters were not allowed near the plants where Saudi authorities swiftly beefed up security.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The attacks on the Abqaiq plant – Aramco&#8217;s largest oil processing facility – and nearby Khurais, which hosts a massive oil field, &#8220;resulted in production suspension of 5.7 million barrels of crude oil per day&#8221;, the company said.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said work was underway to restore production and a progress update would be provided in the next two days.</span></p>
<figure id="attachment_379986" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-379986" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Saudi-update-1-e1568529879314.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1067" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Smoke billows from an Aramco oil facility in Abqaiq, about 60km southwest of Dhahran in Saudi Arabia&#8217;s eastern province, on September 14, 2019. Photo: AFP</figcaption></figure>
<h4>Production halted</h4>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Explosions at the plant also led to a production halt of an estimated two billion cubic feet of gas per day, Prince Abdulaziz said.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The UN&#8217;s Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths said he was &#8220;extremely concerned&#8221; over the latest attacks, which also drew swift condemnation from Riyadh&#8217;s Gulf allies, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">In recent months, the Huthi rebels have carried out a spate of cross-border missile and drone attacks targeting Saudi air bases and other facilities in what they say is retaliation for a long-running Riyadh-led bombing campaign on rebel-held areas in Yemen.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Last month, an attack claimed by Huthi rebels sparked a fire at Aramco&#8217;s Shaybah natural gas liquefaction facility – close to the Emirati border – but no casualties were reported by the company.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Rebel drones also targeted two oil pumping stations on Saudi Arabia&#8217;s key east-west pipeline in May, shutting it down for several days.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Growing rebel attacks underscore how Saudi infrastructure, including oil installations, are increasingly vulnerable to the Huthis&#8217; steadily advancing weaponry – from ballistic missiles to unmanned drones.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The Abqaiq plant, which Aramco says plays a &#8220;pivotal role&#8221; in its operations, has been targeted by militants in the past.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">In an attack claimed by Al-Qaeda in February 2006, suicide bombers with explosive-laden vehicles attempted to penetrate the processing plant, killing two security guards.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The two bombers also died in the attack, which failed to breach the compound, authorities reported at the time.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The United States and Saudi Arabia have blamed Tehran for multiple attacks on tankers in the Gulf, and in June, Trump called off air strikes against Iran at the last minute after it downed a US drone.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The latest attacks come as Saudi Arabia accelerates preparations for a much-anticipated initial public offering of Aramco, the world&#8217;s most profitable company.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The mammoth IPO forms the cornerstone of a reform programme envisaged by the powerful crown prince to wean the Saudi economy off its reliance on oil.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Aramco is ready for a two-stage stock market debut including an international listing &#8220;very soon,” its CEO Amin Nasser told reporters on Tuesday.</span></p>
<p>Saudi shares dropped 3% at the start of trading Sunday, the first session after the attacks on the two major oil facilities knocked out more than half the kingdom&#8217;s production.</p>
<p>The Arab world&#8217;s largest capital market shed some 200 points in the first few minutes after the opening bell, before regaining some of the losses.</p>
<p>The key energy sector plunged 4.7%, while the telecom and banking sectors each slid 3%.</p>
<p>– <em>AFP</em></p>
Calls were made for Britain to do more to help Hong Kong people and to put pressure on Beijing
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/protesters-rally-at-the-british-consulate-in-hk/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/protesters-rally-at-the-british-consulate-in-hk/<p>Pro-democracy protesters rallied outside Britain&#8217;s consulate in Hong Kong on Sunday, demanding London do more to protect its former colonial subjects and ramp up pressure on Beijing over sliding freedoms.</p>
<p>Hundreds of demonstrators sang <em>God Save the Queen</em> and <em>Rule Britannia</em> outside the consulate, waving the Union Jack as well as Hong Kong&#8217;s colonial-era flags.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, thousands were marching from Causeway Bay to Central in spite of a police ban. Barricades had been set up and pro-democracy slogans were being broadcast through a loudhailer set up in the area.</p>
<p>The once-stable international hub has been convulsed by weeks of huge, sometimes violent rallies calling for greater democratic freedoms and police accountability.</p>
<p>The movement is the biggest challenge to China&#8217;s rule since the city was handed back by Britain in 1997 and shows no sign of ending, with local leaders and Beijing taking a hard line.</p>
<p>Under a deal signed with Britain ahead of the city&#8217;s 1997 handover to China, Hong Kong is allowed to keep its unique freedoms for 50 years.</p>
<p>Democracy activists accuse Beijing of reneging on those promises by tightening political control over the semi-autonomous territory and refusing calls for universal suffrage.</p>
<p>Many of the protest signs accused Britain of not doing enough to confront Beijing over its tightening grip on the semi-autonomous Chinese city.</p>
<p>&#8220;Sino-British Joint Declaration is VOID,&#8221; one read banner, referencing the 1984 agreement that paved the way for the city&#8217;s handover, a deal that Hong Kongers were given no say over.</p>
<p>&#8220;So far I&#8217;m quite disappointed by the fact that the UK hasn&#8217;t done anything to support us,&#8221; said protester Alex Leung, a recent graduate.</p>
<p>Many called for Hong Kongers who want to leave the city to be granted citizenship in Britain or other Commonwealth nations.</p>
<p>Some Hong Kongers were given British National Overseas (BNO) passports before the handover, a document that allows holders easy travel to the UK but grants no working or residency rights.</p>
<p>&#8220;At least with the full citizenship they can protect Hong Kong people from the Chinese government,&#8221; said protester Anthony Chau, who holds a BNO passport.</p>
<p>Earlier this week about 130 UK lawmakers signed a joint letter calling for Britain and Commonwealth countries to come up with an &#8220;insurance policy&#8221; for Hong Kongers to resettle overseas should they wish to.</p>
<p>Hong Kong has been battered by nearly 100 days of protests, sparked by a now-abandoned plan to allow extraditions to the mainland.</p>
<p>China has portrayed the protests as foreign-funded, singling out Britain and the United States for criticism, although it has presented little evidence beyond supportive statements from some foreign politicians.</p>
<p>It has insisted Hong Kong – an international finance hub with a significant foreign population – is an entirely internal matter.</p>
<p>Britain has walked a careful path on the protests, keen to keep Beijing onside as a valuable trade partner, especially given the uncertainty thrown up by its imminent departure from the European Union.</p>
<p>But it has also expressed concerns about the direction Hong Kong has headed and says it has a duty to ensure Beijing upholds the deal it struck before the handover.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Joint Declaration is a legally binding treaty between the UK and China that remains as valid today as it was when it was signed and ratified over 30 years ago,&#8221; a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said in June.</p>
<p>Democracy advocates have ramped up appeals to the international community in recent weeks, with prominent activists traveling overseas and crowd-funding used to print adverts in global newspapers.</p>
<p>Joshua Wong, a well-known activist, is now in the United States and met Germany&#8217;s foreign minister earlier this week in Berlin – a trip that has infuriated Beijing.</p>
<p>Sunday&#8217;s protest outside the UK mission was significantly smaller than a huge march the week before to the United States consulate, which saw tens of thousands turn out.</p>
<p>The pro-democracy movement has vowed to continue until key demands are met, including an inquiry into the police, an amnesty for those arrested and universal suffrage.</p>
<p>While fights have broken out between rival political camps in recent days, the last two weekends have seen much less intense battles between protesters and riot police.</p>
<p>But there are plans for further protests, especially come October 1 when leaders in Beijing are planning huge celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of the People&#8217;s Republic of China.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379994" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-379994" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/HK-2.jpeg" alt="" width="1600" height="1200" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/HK-2.jpeg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/HK-2-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/HK-2-1568x1176.jpeg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Protesters marching from Causeway Bay to Central on Sunday. Photo: Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<p>– <em>AFP</em></p>
A bacteria has been helping slow the spread of the illness, which had affected hundreds of thousands
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/mosquito-trials-raise-hopes-of-defeating-dengue/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/mosquito-trials-raise-hopes-of-defeating-dengue/<p>Hundreds dead in the Philippines, a threefold increase of cases in Vietnam, hospitals overrun in Malaysia, Myanmar and Cambodia – dengue is ravaging Southeast Asia this year due in part to rising temperatures and low immunity to new strains.</p>
<p>But one group of scientists is rolling out trials to breed dengue-resistant bugs in a bid to tackle one of the world&#8217;s leading mosquito-borne illnesses, raising hopes the untreatable disease can finally be beaten.</p>
<p>The World Mosquito Program (WMP) has pioneered a method where male and female Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes are infected with the disease-resistant bacteria called Wolbachia before being released into the wild.</p>
<p>In a matter of weeks, baby mosquitoes are born carrying Wolbachia, which acts as a disease buffer for the bugs – making it harder for them to pass on not only dengue, but Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever.</p>
<p>First trialed in northern Australia, it&#8217;s been tested in nine countries around the globe, including in Vietnam, where early results were promising.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have seen a remarkable reduction of dengue cases after the release,&#8221; explained Nguyen Binh Nguyen, project coordinator for WMP in Nha Trang.</p>
<p>His team set free about half a million Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes last year in Vinh Luong, a crowded dengue-prone district in southern Vietnam.</p>
<p>Since the trials, dengue cases were down 86% in Vinh Luong compared to nearby resort town Nha Trang.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s a major relief for Cong Thi Thu, an accountant who along with her two children suffered an intense bout of dengue in 2016, flooring the family for weeks.</p>
<p>She worries less after the trials but still makes her kids sleep under nets and no longer leaves stagnant water to collect in the pots around her garden, which offer ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes.</p>
<p>&#8220;I feel at ease now, 70% to 80% safe, but I still have to be careful,&#8221; Thu said from her leafy compound.</p>
<p>Today, mosquitoes still buzz about in the open-air shops, cafes and homes of Vinh Luong, but the majority in the test areas now carry Wolbachia compared to none before the trials, WMP said.</p>
<p>Convincing wary residents like Thu, along with health officials and ethics boards, that the mosquitoes won&#8217;t make them sick was not an easy task.</p>
<p>Residents have long subscribed to the official motto &#8220;no mosquitoes, no larvae, no dengue&#8221; to avoid the virus, dubbed &#8220;breakbone fever&#8221; because of its severe flu-like symptoms.</p>
<p>Dengue is passed along to humans by infected mosquitoes, which thrive in crowded, hot and humid neighborhoods like Thu&#8217;s.</p>
<p>Cases have surged not only in Vietnam this year but across Southeast Asia, with about 670,000 infected and more than 1,800 people dead in the region, according to a tally of national and World Health Organization data.</p>
<p>Experts say it&#8217;s the worst outbreak in years.</p>
<p>Warmer weather is one factor – temperatures in July 2019 were the hottest ever recorded globally, and mosquitoes love hot weather – coupled with the introduction of new dengue strains that have spread among populations with no immunity.</p>
<p>Long-term trends are also at play: breakneck urbanisation in Asian megacities, a massive increase in international travel and trade and the cyclical nature of outbreaks.</p>
<p>&#8220;That creates the perfect ingredients for the dengue epidemic to happen,&#8221; said Rachel Lowe, assistant professor at the London School of Hygiene &amp; Tropical Medicine.</p>
<p>Wolbachia was first discovered by scientists in the 1920s in mosquitoes living in the drainage system beneath the Harvard University School of Public Health.</p>
<p>Found in 60% of all insect species – including dragonflies, fruit flies and moths – the bacteria was mostly ignored until the 1970s when researchers discovered it could be used to prevent the spread of disease by bugs.</p>
<p>Over the years scientists have conducted anti-dengue experiments with Wolbachia-laden mosquitoes with varied success, but now WMP hopes its approach will stick.</p>
<p>It is one of the only organizations in the world seeking to repopulate colonies with Wolbachia-infected mosquitos to fight dengue, estimated to spread to as many as 100 million people globally every year.</p>
<p>Other groups, including in Singapore and Malaysia, are using Wolbachia but only in male mosquitoes who render female eggs infertile – a method that aims to suppress the mosquito population, which rarely lasts.</p>
<p>Many countries are also fogging neighborhoods with insecticides – effective in the short term, though the mosquitoes often come back in just a few days, or develop resistance to the chemical killers.</p>
<p>&#8220;No one has been able to get long-lasting suppression because the mosquitoes just keep re-invading,&#8221; said WMP director Scott O&#8217;Neill.</p>
<p>Results from WMP&#8217;s Wolbachia trials in northern Australia and on the Vietnamese island Tri Nguyen have been positive – local dengue transmissions are almost non-existent – and outcomes from trials in Indonesia are expected in the next year.</p>
<p>But experts say more long-term, and large-scale, studies are needed to see if the approach really works.</p>
<p>Dr Raman Velayudhan, a coordinator of WHO&#8217;s global control program on dengue, said: &#8220;Our bottom line is to make sure that it leads to the reduction of the disease.&#8221;</p>
<p>– <em>AFP</em></p>
The mosquito-borne illness has infected large numbers of people worldwide, particularly in Asia
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/what-is-dengue-and-why-is-it-so-widespread/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/what-is-dengue-and-why-is-it-so-widespread/<p>Dubbed &#8220;breakbone fever,&#8221; dengue is one of the world&#8217;s leading mosquito-borne illnesses and infects tens of millions across the globe annually, especially in Southeast Asia.</p>
<p>About half of the planet&#8217;s population live in at-risk areas, mainly in Asia, Latin America and Africa.</p>
<p>Outbreaks have ravaged Southeast Asia this year, infecting hundreds of thousands, killing hundreds and crippling health care systems as governments struggle to contain the untreatable virus.</p>
<p>Record numbers of cases have been recorded in Thailand and neighboring Cambodia, where statistics on the number of people contracting dengue are notoriously unreliable.</p>
<p>In rural Cambodia, many cases go unreported or are only treated at local clinics, while records are only kept at government-run medical facilities.</p>
<p>Myanmar and Bangladesh have also reported record numbers of dengue cases in the past two years.</p>
<h4>Mosquito bites</h4>
<p>So what is dengue, how does it spread and how can it be contained?</p>
<p>Dengue is transmitted mainly by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which thrives in densely-populated tropical climates and breeds in stagnant pools of water.</p>
<p>The mosquitoes pick up the virus from infected humans – even asymptomatic ones – and pass it along to other people through bites.</p>
<p>Infections have steadily climbed across the globe since the 1970s due to rising temperatures and irregular monsoon rains linked to climate change, which allow for ideal mosquito breeding conditions.</p>
<p>Dengue is mostly found in crowded areas, and breakneck urbanization across the globe has helped the virus thrive, especially in fast-growing mega-cities like Manila, Rio de Janeiro, Ho Chi Minh City and Tegucigalpa.</p>
<p>A massive boom in international travel and trade has also expanded dengue&#8217;s footprint, allowing the virus to be carried across the globe in a matter of hours and unleashed in new communities.</p>
<p>Experts say the widespread adoption of plastic is also to blame – storage containers, discarded takeout boxes, backyard pools, plant pots and cooking urns all collect water – a problem made worse during dry spells.</p>
<h4>Serious, and deadly</h4>
<p>&#8220;When you have a drought, people collect water in containers. That is one place the dengue mosquito loves to breed,&#8221; said Gawrie Loku Galappaththy, a dengue specialist with the World Health Organization in the Philippines.</p>
<p>Its grim nickname comes from the disease&#8217;s intense flu-like symptoms: severe headache, pain behind the eyes, full-body aches, high fever, nausea, vomiting, swollen glands or rash.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s most serious – and deadly – in children, especially young girls, although scientists don&#8217;t know why.</p>
<p>Contracting one of dengue&#8217;s four strains gives immunity only to that particular one – which is why adults in endemic areas are often safe because they&#8217;ve likely had it before.</p>
<p>But later picking up a different strain, called a serotype, usually causes a worse infection than the first time.</p>
<p>With no known treatment for dengue, doctors can only help to ease the virus&#8217; brutal symptoms, which can last weeks and often renders patients completely immobile.</p>
<p>Once confined mostly to cities in tropical climates, dengue is now found in at least 125 countries across the world, with about 100 million infected every year and some four billion people living in dengue-prone areas, according to the journal Nature Microbiology.</p>
<p>The disease is cyclical – dramatic outbreaks occur every few years – but climate change is believed to have contributed to a spike in cases in 2019, with July clocked as the warmest on record.</p>
<p>&#8220;Extremely warm temperatures we&#8217;ve seen this year&#8221; likely facilitated its spread, said Rachel Lowe, assistant professor at the London School of Hygiene &amp; Tropical Medicine, since mosquitoes thrive in warm weather climates.</p>
<p>Several European countries where dengue was once marginal have seen outbreaks, while Latin American countries including Brazil, Colombia, Honduras and Nicaragua are tackling a surge in cases.</p>
<h4>Vaccine</h4>
<p>In Southeast Asia insecticide fogging is commonly used to kill mosquitoes off, but they usually return after a few days, and insects can quickly become resistant to the chemicals.</p>
<p>A controversial vaccine developed by French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi Pasteur has been greenlit for use in 21 countries and the European Union – but it&#8217;s far from perfect.</p>
<p>The vaccine, called Dengvaxia, requires three doses, and should only be given to people above the age of nine – the maximum age varies by country – who have been previously infected by dengue.</p>
<p>In 2016, the Philippines was one of the first countries to use Dengvaxia in a mass immunization program, but its fumbled rollout has been blamed for the deaths of dozens of children and led to its eventual ban.</p>
<p>Several countries are also trialing the so-called Wolbachia method, and though it&#8217;s too early to say if the approach works on a large scale, early results are promising.</p>
<p>Mosquitoes are infected with the naturally-occurring Wolbachia bacteria – which is mostly dengue-resistant – and are released to repopulate wild mosquito colonies to reduce disease transmission.</p>
<p>– <em>AFP</em></p>
Captain says memories of horror knockout in last cup will help drive squad in Japan, while Wallaby coach Cheika denies rift within his team over sacking of star fullback Israel Folau
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/england-spurred-by-2015-cup-flop-farrell/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/england-spurred-by-2015-cup-flop-farrell/<p>England captain Owen Farrell said on Saturday that memories of the team&#8217;s horror World Cup four years ago will be a driving force as they seek redemption in Japan.</p>
<p>Farrell, part of the Stuart Lancaster-coached England side that became the first host nation to fail to reach the knockout stage, warned they were a different animal this time, and the players could not wait for the tournament to start after settling at their base in Miyazaki, southern Japan.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s obviously different – it&#8217;s four years ago,&#8221; said the Saracens flyhalf.</p>
<p>&#8220;A lot of work has been done since then but it will spur people on. What I can say is that we&#8217;re in a very good place now. We&#8217;re continuing to build and we&#8217;re looking forward to this tournament – the lads can&#8217;t wait to get going.&#8221;</p>
<p>Prop Ellis Genge, who was not involved in the last World Cup, insisted this England team would not be paralyzed by fear, revealing that coach Eddie Jones wants his players to try and play expansive rugby.</p>
<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s definitely told us to just be ourselves,&#8221; said Genge.</p>
<p>&#8220;Obviously we didn&#8217;t have a great tournament last time, but he told us to express ourselves and keep playing the way we&#8217;ve been playing.&#8221;</p>
<p>England, who have completed the Grand Slam and won another Six Nations title since Jones took over after their shambolic 2015 World Cup campaign, arrive in Japan in fine fettle after smashing title rivals Ireland 57-15 and thumping Italy 37-0 in their final two warm-up games.</p>
<p>They face Tonga in their opening match in Sapporo on September 22, before further Group C fixtures against the United States, Argentina and France as they look to emulate the England side that won the World Cup in 2003.</p>
<h4>Honeymoon resort</h4>
<p>Mako Vunipola (hamstring) and Jack Nowell (appendix) are not expected to return to the side until the third or fourth game, but Jones looked relaxed at his first official press conference in Japan.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379956" style="width: 1580px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-379956" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Eddie-Jones-2019-e1568460690836.jpg" alt="" width="1580" height="2069" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Eddie-Jones-2019-e1568460690836.jpg 1580w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Eddie-Jones-2019-e1568460690836-768x1006.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Eddie-Jones-2019-e1568460690836-1568x2053.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1580px) 100vw, 1580px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">England&#8217;s head coach Eddie Jones smiles during a press conference in Miyazaki on September 14, 2019, ahead of the Japan 2019 Rugby World Cup. Photo: Behrouz Mehri / AFP</figcaption></figure>
<p>&#8220;Obviously we had a rigorous travel schedule,&#8221; said the Australian, referring to the transport chaos triggered by a typhoon that marooned England&#8217;s squad at Tokyo&#8217;s Narita airport for five hours after their long-haul flight earlier in the week.</p>
<p>&#8220;But we&#8217;ve settled in well and got used to the conditions. We&#8217;ve deliberately only done light training up until now but we will have a more vigorous workout this afternoon,&#8221; added Jones, who famously led Japan to three victories at the last World Cup.</p>
<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a good feeling in the camp. Now we can begin the serious preparation for the World Cup.&#8221;</p>
<p>England, among several title contenders including treble-chasing New Zealand, South Africa and northern hemisphere rivals Wales and Ireland, are staying at a sun-kissed honeymoon resort in Miyazaki, where Jones used to subject the Japan team to brutal training sessions that left many of them seeing stars.</p>
<p>&#8220;I can still see some of the sweat of the players on the ground,&#8221; smiled Jones, who created the blueprint for Japan&#8217;s astonishing 34-32 World Cup upset over South Africa among the palm trees and hibiscus of the luxury retreat.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s nice to come back, it&#8217;s a great place to train. The players can play golf, they went to the beach yesterday. It&#8217;s a place where you can prepare to win and that&#8217;s why we came here.&#8221;</p>
<figure id="attachment_379960" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-379960" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Cheika.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="682" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Cheika.jpg 1024w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Cheika-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Australia&#8217;s head coach Michael Cheika speaks at the World Cup squad announcement in Sydney on August 23, 2019. Photo: Saeed Khan / AFP</figcaption></figure>
<p>Meanwhile, Wallabies coach Michael Cheika has said he was personally threatened by fans after vowing not to select Israel Folau over his &#8220;disrespectful&#8221; anti-gay comments.</p>
<p>The deeply Christian player was sacked by Rugby Australia in May for posting on Instagram that &#8220;hell awaits&#8221; gay people and others he considers sinners.</p>
<p>His firing proved hugely divisive and the star fullback, who played 73 times for the Wallabies, is pursuing court action for unfair dismissal and restraint of trade with a hearing set for next February.</p>
<p>&#8220;People were saying all sorts of stuff,&#8221; Cheika told the Sydney Morning Herald from the Wallabies&#8217; training base in Japan ahead of the World Cup, in an interview published Saturday.</p>
<p>&#8220;Just threats I was getting; people on the street, some to my face, a couple at some games. It was just crazy stuff.&#8221;</p>
<p>Folau&#8217;s offending comment followed a similar row last year, when Cheika was reportedly instrumental in fighting to give him a second chance.</p>
<p>But when he aired his controversial views again Cheika was less conciliatory, ruling out picking him for the Wallabies because &#8220;the team is king&#8221; and when playing for Australia &#8220;we represent everyone&#8221;.</p>
<p>The coach&#8217;s stance did not go down well with some fans. While many were outraged by Folau&#8217;s views, others, including the Christian lobby, defended his right to free speech.</p>
<p>Cheika said his dispute with Folau was not personal and he holds nothing against him.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not disappointed in the individual because if that&#8217;s what he believes, and that&#8217;s where his passion is, I will never tell someone to hide it,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t say I&#8217;m responsible for what&#8217;s happened. It&#8217;s just life. But I had to do what was needed for the team.&#8221;</p>
<p>There were reports when the row exploded that it had split the Wallabies dressing room, with some unwilling to take the field with Folau while others – fellow Polynesians who are equally religious – believing their faith was under attack.</p>
<p>But Cheika denied any division within the squad.</p>
<p>&#8220;We had to make some hard decisions. But [claims of a split] was the opposite of the truth. And that&#8217;s the fundamental thing about great teams: they trust each other, they&#8217;re united when it&#8217;s really tough.</p>
<p>&#8220;And I think it&#8217;s shown to be a total untruth with the way this team has played this season. It&#8217;s been disproved by the spirit and team camaraderie that&#8217;s been shown.&#8221;</p>
<p>Australia, who lost the 2015 final to New Zealand, open their World Cup campaign against Fiji on September 21.</p>
<p>AFP</p>
About 55% of all home units in Hong Kong are privately owned but govt could build 70,000 flats on 150 hectares in New Territories over next decade
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/court-battles-may-delay-hk-farmland-buy-up/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/court-battles-may-delay-hk-farmland-buy-up/<p>The Hong Kong government is likely to face legal challenges over its plan to buy back farmland from local property development groups, which reportedly own more than 1,000 hectares in the New Territories.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379929" style="width: 323px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class=" wp-image-379929" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Stanley-Wong.jpg" alt="" width="323" height="240" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Stanley-Wong.jpg 800w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Stanley-Wong-768x571.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 323px) 100vw, 323px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Stanley Wong Yuen-fai. Photo: RTHK</figcaption></figure>
<p>If the government wants to resume all the farmland owned by property giants under the Lands Resumption Ordinance, it will probably face judiciary reviews, Stanley Wong Yuen-fai, a former chairman of Task Force on Land Supply and current chairman of Subsidised Housing Committee of Housing Authority, said in radio program on Saturday.</p>
<p>However, if the government wins these legal cases, it could boost its land reserve more easily in the long run, Wong said.</p>
<p>Wong also suggested that the government to increase the compensation rates it will pay for resumed land in order to accelerate the land buy-back process.</p>
<p>According to the Lands Department, ex-gratia compensation <a href="https://www.gld.gov.hk/egazette/pdf/20192313/egn201923132299.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rates</a> for resumed land is HK$1,124 (US$143.70) per square foot for ordinary agricultural land and HK$1,348.80 per square foot for farmland in the New Territories (zone A), or within the New Town boundaries.</p>
<p>Hong Kong&#8217;s Democratic Party had urged the government for years to buy agricultural land from the property developers under the Lands Resumption Ordinance. But the government rejected the idea, saying such a move would trigger judicial reviews that could take years.</p>
<p>However, Michael Wong Wai-lun, Secretary for Development, told the Legislative Council in May 2018 that the government had only faced eight cases of judicial review out of 154 projects in which land was bought over the past 20 years. He said the government won all these cases and the longest case didn’t last for more than a year.</p>
<p>The government has begun to reconsider the idea of buying back this land after the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, a pro-Beijing political party, urged it to do this on September 11.</p>
<h4><strong>Property giants blamed</strong></h4>
<p>The following day, the <a href="https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2019-09-12/doc-iicezueu5418185.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">People’s Daily</a> and <a href="http://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1644489623353560099&amp;wfr=spider&amp;for=pc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Xinhua News Agency</a>, published commentaries that blamed Hong Kong property developers for hoarding land and pushing up home prices over the past decade. They said high property prices were a root cause of the social unrest that has plagued the city in recent months.</p>
<p>However, the Real Estate Developers Association of Hong Kong said in a <a href="http://www.reda.hk/hk/2019/09/13/13-9-2019-statement/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> on September 13 the claim of land-hoarding was a &#8220;misunderstanding&#8221;. Property developers said they had hoped the government would increase the supply of land and housing – and they could not build houses on farmland before going through official procedures which usually take 10 to 20 years to complete. They said they would work with the government to speed up the process.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379931" style="width: 322px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class=" wp-image-379931" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Andrew-Wan.jpg" alt="" width="322" height="258" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Andrew-Wan.jpg 1200w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Andrew-Wan-768x614.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 322px) 100vw, 322px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Democratic Party MP Andrew Wan Siu-kin. Photo: RTHK</figcaption></figure>
<p>Democratic Party lawmaker Andrew Wan Siu-kin told Hong Kong media that Beijing and the DAB wanted to shift the blame for Hong Kong’s social unrest onto property developers.</p>
<p>Ivan Choy Chi-keung, a senior lecturer at the Chinese University Hong Kong, said high property prices definitely were a deep-rooted problem in Hong Kong. But Beijing may have made a wrong conclusion about protests over the extradition bill, as young people were more worried about an erosion of their freedoms, not housing problems, Choy said.</p>
<p>KK Tse, a former management consultant who became involved with the Hong Kong Social Entrepreneurship Forum, has said Hong Kong has one of the highest Gini coefficients – a measure of inequality – in the world.</p>
<p>&#8220;The number of poor households reached 530,000, with more than 1.3 million people living in poverty [over 15% of the population],&#8221; he told the South China Morning Post. &#8220;Property prices have soared to a level that is totally out of reach for most people, especially the younger generation. In a city in which seven of the 10 richest people are in the real estate business, financial assets are the major source of income polarisation.&#8221;</p>
<h4>Vast price gap with Singapore</h4>
<p>In fact, home prices have shot up dramatically in Hong Kong – by 483% since July 2003, because of the city government&#8217;s policy of not intervening in the housing market.</p>
<p>This can be seen in the Cents-City Leading Index, <a href="http://www1.centadata.com/cci/cci.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">compiled</a> by the Centaline Property Agency to reflect secondary private home prices. The index fell to 31.7 in July 2003 from 100 in July 1997 after Hong Kong was handed over from the British to the Chinese government. But it has risen dramatically over the past 16 years, with the index at 184.96 on Friday.</p>
<p>But in Singapore, home prices have only increased by about 88% since 2004, according to a property price index compiled by <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/singapore/housing-index" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tradingeconomics.com</a>. The difference in the mix of public and private housing has caused the vast difference in property prices in the two Asian hubs.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379932" style="width: 321px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class=" wp-image-379932" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/HDB_flats_in_Singapore_1.jpg" alt="" width="321" height="257" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/HDB_flats_in_Singapore_1.jpg 1200w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/HDB_flats_in_Singapore_1-768x614.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 321px) 100vw, 321px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Housing and Development Board apartments in Singapore. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, ProjectManhattan</figcaption></figure>
<p>About 80% of the 5.87 million people in Singapore live in 1.2 million government-built housing units. These citizens can buy Housing and Development Board flats at an affordable price.</p>
<p>Hong Kong also has about 1.2 million public housing units but these account for only 45% of all units, according to a Legco <a href="https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr16-17/chinese/panels/dev/papers/dev20170124cb1-461-1-c.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">document</a>. About 2.1 million people live in these units while most of the city’s 7.4 million people live in private apartments, which have prices very sensitive to the influx of &#8216;hot money&#8217;.</p>
<h4><strong>10-year housing target</strong></h4>
<p>The <a href="https://www.housingauthority.gov.hk/en/about-us/publications-and-statistics/prh-applications-average-waiting-time/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Housing Authority</a> said there were about 147,900 general applications for public rental housing at end-June 2019. There were another 108,200 non-elderly one-person applications under the Quota and Points System. The average waiting time for general applicants was 5.4 years and 2.9 years for single elderly applicants.</p>
<p>The government estimates that over the next decade there will be 450,000 new homes in the city, 315,000 or 70% of which will be public housing units. But it said Hong Kong lacks the land needed to build 67,000 public housing units.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379933" style="width: 321px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class=" wp-image-379933" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/hk-farmlands.jpg" alt="" width="321" height="237" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/hk-farmlands.jpg 1300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/hk-farmlands-768x567.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 321px) 100vw, 321px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Agricultural land in the New Territories. Photo: RTHK</figcaption></figure>
<p>According to a <a href="https://www.landforhongkong.hk/en/index.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> by the Task Force on Land Supply, about 150 out of 1,000 hectares owned by property developers can be resumed for development within a decade.</p>
<p>Between 34,000 to 107,000 apartments can be built on 150 hectares of land – equivalent to about eight Victoria Parks in Causeway Bay, depending on different plot ratios, HK01 <a href="https://www.hk01.com/%E7%A4%BE%E6%9C%83%E6%96%B0%E8%81%9E/374702/%E6%94%B6%E5%9B%9E%E5%9C%9F%E5%9C%B0%E6%A2%9D%E4%BE%8B-%E7%9F%AD%E4%B8%AD%E6%9C%9F%E6%96%99%E5%8F%AF%E5%BB%BA7%E8%90%AC%E4%BC%99-%E5%9C%98%E9%AB%94-%E7%99%BC%E5%B1%95%E5%95%86%E4%BB%8D%E6%9C%89%E4%B8%BB%E5%B0%8E%E6%AC%8A" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> on Friday. It cited a plot ratio of 0.86 in Sha Tau Kok Chuen and as high as 6 in Wang Chau in the New Territories.</p>
<p>The government will probably be able to build 70,000 flats on the 150 hectares of land, which would meet its 10-year target, it said.</p>
<p><strong>Read</strong>: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hong-kong-property-tycoons-in-beijings-crosshairs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hong Kong property tycoons in Beijing’s crosshairs</a></p>
<p><strong>Read</strong>: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hk-property-prices-down-3-5-on-protests-trade-war/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HK property prices down 3-5% on protests, trade war</a></p>
Regional rivals offering bargain prices to grab passengers as HK’s top airline hit by slump
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/chinese-carriers-lure-fliers-as-cathay-hits-rocky-patch/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/chinese-carriers-lure-fliers-as-cathay-hits-rocky-patch/<p>As Hong Kong braces for its 15th weekend of mass protests and chaos since June, tourists and business travelers are understandably spooked. The crisis has landed the city&#8217;s flagship carrier Cathay Pacific in fresh woes not too long after the airline – Asia&#8217;s largest by international passenger flow – lifted itself out of the red.</p>
<p>The jump in empty seats on the Hong Kong carrier&#8217;s 130-plus wide-body passenger jets forced the firm to reduce or suspend long-haul flights to and from North America and Europe, some of which were trunk routes that supported its business.</p>
<p>This week it was reported that Cathay will terminate its 13-hour, four-flights-a-week service to the Irish capital Dublin, which was launched last year, and cut daytime departures from Tokyo, Paris, Frankfurt, Vancouver, Washington DC and New York (from both JFK and Newark airports), among other overseas destinations.</p>
<p>The decision not to fly some half-empty planes from these cities came after a summer of discontent and unrest in Cathay&#8217;s home city. This is a testing time for the carrier facing tepid demand in a traditional peak season for travel, and ahead of a winter slowdown with no uptick on the horizon.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379785" style="width: 734px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-379785" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screenshot-2019-09-13-at-7.32.51-PM.png" alt="" width="734" height="541" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Cathay has been struggling to fill its seats since June, especially on flights to Hong Kong, as the city&#8217;s protests drag on. Photo: Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<p>Cathay&#8217;s flights to Vancouver will be reduced from 17 to 14 a week from October 29, while Washington will lose one of its five weekly flights, and two-way services to JFK in New York are expected to fall from 21 to 18 a week, according to the South China Morning Post, which reviewed its advance bookings.</p>
<p>The airline also expects short-haul flights to destinations throughout mainland China including some to Beijing and lower-tier cities will be cut next.</p>
<p>The number of passengers flying into Hong Kong on Cathay flights nosedived by as much as 38% year-on-year in August, usually the busiest month in summer, when the city&#8217;s street rallies showed no sign of improving, the airline revealed earlier this week. Overall passenger flow dropped by 11%, but this was partly cushioned by many Hongkongers seeking some calm overseas or simply emigrating.</p>
<p>The premium carrier also upset Beijing after pilots and attendants took part in and even led some protests in Hong Kong against the now-retracted China extradition bill, with sit-ins staged at the city&#8217;s airport.</p>
<h4>Rocked by threats, resignations</h4>
<p>That led to threats to deny Cathay entry into Chinese airspace and snarl its operations unless it purged staff who participated or openly supported the protests.</p>
<p>The Hong Kong carrier, owned by the British conglomerate Swire with Air China as its second-largest shareholder, buckled under the pressure, which led to the departure of its CEO Rupert Hugg and chairman John Slosar, along with several pilots and other employees.</p>
<p>Now the neighboring mainland cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen are seeing Cathay&#8217;s misfortune as a chance to poach business to their respective hubs and airlines.</p>
<p>The Guangzhou-based China Southern, a state-owned conglomerate and Asia&#8217;s biggest airline by fleet size, has added more flights to 25 intercontinental services from the city to North America, Europe, Russia, Middle East and Africa, with tickets offered at a fraction of Cathay&#8217;s fares on similar routes, even during the year-end festive season and Christmas break.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379788" style="width: 713px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-379788" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screenshot-2019-09-13-at-7.43.02-PM.png" alt="" width="713" height="533" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Baiyun Airport in Guangzhou has a massive new terminal. Photo: Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_312089" style="width: 1196px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-312089" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Screenshot-2019-02-15-at-3.39.38-PM.png" alt="" width="1196" height="792" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Screenshot-2019-02-15-at-3.39.38-PM.png 1196w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Screenshot-2019-02-15-at-3.39.38-PM-768x509.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1196px) 100vw, 1196px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A China Southern Airlines A380 passenger jet roars into the sky from Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, the carrier&#8217;s home base. Photo: Ban Ma Li/ planespotters.net</figcaption></figure>
<p>Cheaper prices and more destinations can be big incentives to retain fliers and attract new passengers from other parts of the Pearl River Delta and Guangdong province who may have initially flown on Cathay via Hong Kong.</p>
<p>On top of the three runways, Guangzhou&#8217;s Baiyun International Airport has just inaugurated a new terminal with 658,700 square meters of floor space to add further capacity for China Southern and other carriers.</p>
<p>With the high-flying carrier, Guangzhou&#8217;s airport is set to overtake Hong Kong in passenger numbers in coming years. Baiyun handled 35.6 million fliers, up 4.1%, in the first half of 2019, compared with Hong Kong&#8217;s 37.8 million, up 2%, according to data crunched by the IATA.</p>
<p>Hong Kong may even see a drop in passenger numbers for the rest of this year as the impact on travel from the city&#8217;s ongoing protests, now in their fourth month, continues to bite.</p>
<p>In Shenzhen, the city&#8217;s government has budgeted an additional one billion yuan (US$141 million) to subsidize Shenzhen Airlines, Hainan Airlines and other carriers to open more international routes. The city already operates 30 such routes to Brisbane, Brussels, Paris, Madrid, Zurich, Vienna, Vancouver, etc, according to Shenzhen Daily.</p>
<p><strong>Read more:</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/07/article/shenzhen-hk-in-dogfight-over-new-runways/">Shenzhen, HK in dogfight over new runways</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/fire-on-a330-jet-may-cost-air-china-1-7-bln-yuan/">Fire on A330 jet may cost Air China 1.7 bln yuan</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/new-satellite-terminals-to-propel-shanghais-ascent-hold-fri-morn/">New satellite terminals to propel Shanghai’s ascent</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/nearly-9000-stress-test-beijings-new-airport/">Nearly 9,000 stress-test Beijing’s new airport</a></p>
Police intelligence unit ‘reeling’ at arrest of top official, who had knowledge of top secrets and operations
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/canadian-police-official-held-on-spy-charges/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/canadian-police-official-held-on-spy-charges/<p>A senior intelligence officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has been arrested for allegedly stealing a large quantity of sensitive documents, amid speculation he may have been preparing to share secret information with a foreign government.</p>
<p>Cameron Ortis, 47, faces five charges under Canada&#8217;s criminal code and its Security of Information Act, the federal police agency said in a statement on Friday.</p>
<p>&#8220;The allegations are that he obtained, stored, processed sensitive information, we believe with the intent to communicate it to people that he shouldn&#8217;t be communicating it to,&#8221; prosecutor John MacFarlane told journalists after Ortis appeared in an Ottawa court via video link on Friday.</p>
<p>Canada&#8217;s Global News reported that Ortis, who was arrested on Thursday, was a top adviser to former Royal Canadian Mounted Police commissioner Bob Paulson, and had control over counter-intelligence operations.</p>
<p>The work of Ortis, who speaks Mandarin, was central to national security and his arrest involved multiple security agencies, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rcmp-security-charge-1.5280643" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CBC News</a> reported.</p>
<h4>Intelligence community &#8216;reeling&#8217;</h4>
<p>CBC said Canada&#8217;s intelligence community was reeling at the discovery of a senior official – a civilian director-general working with an RCMP intelligence team – has been charged.</p>
<p>It said the event was expected to have a ripple effect for years.</p>
<p>Federal departments across the national government are reportedly conducting in-house damage assessments in the wake of his arrest.</p>
<p>The RCMP fears Ortis stole &#8220;large quantities of information, which could compromise an untold number of investigations,&#8221; according to Global News, which first reported the arrest.</p>
<p>While specific details relating to the arrest of Ortis were not immediately available, analysts said he had some of the highest access to classified and allied information within the Canadian police, with knowledge of code words and operations.</p>
<p>CBC said Ortis faces three charges and multiple counts of a rarely used law that deals with communicating or confirming special operational information. The network quoted one analyst as saying the charges suggested that he had already shared secret information, perhaps just in Canada, but that he may have been preparing to share sensitive information with a foreign government or a terrorist organization.</p>
<h4>&#8216;Five Eyes&#8217;</h4>
<p>Canada is a member of the &#8220;Five Eyes&#8221; intelligence alliance with Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain and the United States.</p>
<p>The public broadcaster Radio-Canada said Ortis is a specialist in East Asia, critical infrastructure and the use of &#8220;bots&#8221; online.</p>
<p>Ortis has been detained in custody until his next hearing on September 20. He could face up to 14 years in prison if convicted.</p>
<figure id="attachment_82656" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-medium wp-image-82656" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/canada-1-300x200.jpg" alt="Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ahead of their meeting in Beijing on August 31, 2016. Photo: Reuters/Wu Hong/Pool" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/canada-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/canada-1-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/canada-1-580x387.jpg 580w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/canada-1.jpg 640w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of a meeting in Beijing on August 31, 2016. Photo: Reuters</figcaption></figure>
<h4>&#8216;Extremely serious&#8217;</h4>
<p>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is campaigning for a second term in office, told reporters at an election rally &#8220;I can assure you that the authorities are taking this extremely seriously,&#8221; without commenting further.</p>
<p>His opponent Conservative leader Andrew Scheer said it was &#8220;extremely concerning that a senior RCMP intelligence officer has been arrested for leaking national security information.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;This is another reminder of the threats we face from foreign actors,&#8221; said Scheer, who is tied in the polls with Trudeau.</p>
<p>On the LinkedIn social network, the account of a person named Cameron Ortis indicates that he has worked for the Canadian government since 2007 after receiving a doctorate in international relations and political science at The University of British Columbia.</p>
<p>The account also says he speaks Mandarin, the main language of China, with which Canada is in the midst of an unprecedented diplomatic crisis.</p>
<p>Beijing last December detained two Canadian nationals in apparent retaliation for Canada&#8217;s arrest of a Chinese tech executive on a US warrant.</p>
<p>China has also blocked Canadian agricultural shipments worth billions of dollars.</p>
<p>With reporting by AFP</p>
Modi is seen as ‘tough and decisive’, yet the economy is in free fall and nation’s democratic culture has been rocked by authoritarian decisions and divisive rhetoric
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/indias-democratic-dictatorship/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/indias-democratic-dictatorship/<p>Amid much fanfare, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has completed a hundred days of its second term. Despite his government’s poor record, Modi remains immensely popular personally. This does not bode well for Indian democracy.</p>
<p>The Modi government’s supporters tout a slew of new repressive legislation – including the criminalization of <em>talaq-e-biddat</em>, the Muslim practice of “instant divorce” – as a display of resoluteness. Likewise, Modi’s recent abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, guaranteed under Article 370 of India’s constitution, was undertaken amid a statewide lockdown. Political leaders were arrested, and telephone and Internet services were suspended. There is no telling what will happen when the lid is taken off the pressure cooker. Yet most Indians are offering unstinting support.</p>
<p>Modi’s supporters have less to say about the economy, which is in free fall, and relations among religious communities, which have never been tenser. (The unmanned Moon landing of which they had hoped to boast failed when the robotic rover crashed on the lunar surface on the eve of the hundred-day anniversary.)</p>
<p>Modi’s enduring popularity may mystify his critics. Most of the out-of-the-box solutions he has attempted have done more harm than good. For example, his government’s disastrous <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/india-demonetization-policy-consequences-by-shashi-tharoor-2016-12">demonetization</a> of 86% of India’s currency in 2016 was probably the single biggest blow to the Indian economy since independence, costing millions of jobs and undermining growth. But that does not seem to bother most voters, for whom he comes across as a decisive, no-nonsense leader, willing to break with tradition and attempt bold solutions to India’s intractable problems.</p>
<p>This response has left many in India scratching their heads. Here is a prime minister who has upended practically every civilized convention in Indian politics. He has sent law-enforcement authorities to pursue flimsy charges against opposition leaders, promoted ministers whose divisive rhetoric has left Muslims and other minorities living in fear, and intimidated the media to the point that press coverage of his administration is an embarrassment to India’s democratic culture.</p>
<p>Moreover, Modi’s government has discarded, for the first time in the history of India’s parliamentary standing committees, a bipartisan tradition that accords a member of the leading opposition party the chair of the External Affairs Committee (a position I previously held). Instead, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided that it will hold its own government accountable.</p>
<h4>Fervent nationalism</h4>
<p>For many of Modi’s admirers, such flagrant authoritarian displays simply don’t matter. In their view, after decades of too much “soft-hearted democracy” and pandering governing coalitions, a “tough” Indian leader was long overdue. Those of us whose faith in India’s democratic system was absolute now face the sobering realization that its roots may be shallower than we had allowed ourselves to believe.</p>
<p>India is now in the throes of a fervent nationalism that extols every Indian achievement, real or imagined, and labels even the mildest political disagreement or protest “anti-national” or even “seditious.” Almost every independent institution has been hollowed out and turned into an instrument of the government’s overweening dominance.</p>
<p>In the case of the tax authorities, this is less surprising. But now agencies responsible for financial investigations, law enforcement, and the government’s intelligence-gathering machinery, and even famously autonomous bodies like the Election Commission and the judiciary, are not exempt from such concerns.</p>
<p>Under Modi, political freedom is no longer regarded as a virtue. The new standard of social order is control (by the authorities) and conformity (by everyone else). As the scholar and commentator Pratap Bhanu Mehta recently <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/narendra-modi-bjp-hundred-days-kashmir-lockdown-5980799/">noted</a>, “it is difficult to remember a time” when the “premium on public and professional discourse marching to the state’s tune was as high.”</p>
<h4>Communal relations battered</h4>
<p>Predictably, communal relations have worsened dramatically under BJP rule. The alienation of India’s Muslim community is so severe that even some of the government’s staunchest defenders have <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/hindus-and-muslims-are-no-longer-talking-to-each-other-in-the-bjp-s-new-india/cid/1699328">acknowledged</a> it. For 3,000 years, India was a haven for the persecuted of all nations and faiths. Today, it rejects Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/ethnic-cleansing-in-assam-india-by-shashi-tharoor-2018-08">publishes</a> a National Register of Citizens that excludes millions of largely Muslim people who were driven to India as refugees after 1971, and their Indian-born children. There are also murmurs of a new push to eliminate the personal laws that minority communities are allowed to retain to govern their family practices, and to adopt “anti-conversion” laws aimed at restricting missionary activity.</p>
<p>Before our eyes, India’s very character is being transformed by a government with no regard for institutions, understandings, and practices maintained since independence. “Boldness,” it seems, is all that matters.</p>
<p>For liberal democrats like me, the increasingly salient concern is that this could be what the Indian public – modestly educated and misguided by the BJP’s skillful propaganda – really wants. As Mehta asks: “Is, somehow, this exaltation of power, control and nationalism a completion of our own deepest desires?”</p>
<p>In any case, if these first hundred days of Modi’s second five-year term are any indication, India may well soon cease to be the country Mahatma Gandhi struggled to free.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2019<br />
<a href="http://www.project-syndicate.org/">www.project-syndicate.org</a></p>
President Xi’s economic confidant singles out ‘trade balance, market entry and investor protection’
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/liu-outlines-chinas-trade-talks-strategy/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/liu-outlines-chinas-trade-talks-strategy/<p class="p1">Liu He knows what he can offer Washington to end the trade war. It is just a question of whether China’s Vice-Premier can pull it off when talks resume with the United States next month.</p>
<p class="p1">President Xi Jinping’s economic confidant outlined Beijing’s priorities during a conversation with Evan Greenberg, the president of the <a href="https://www.uschina.org/">US-China Business Council</a>, an influential lobby group, on Thursday.</p>
<p class="p1">The state-run <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/world/2019-09/12/c_1124992505.htm">official news agency Xinhua</a> reported that the “trade balance, market entry and investor protection” would be part of a relatively narrow agenda. It is open to debate if that will placate Washington.</p>
<p class="p1">Reducing America&#8217;s soaring trade deficit with China has been a crucial goal of the White House. But so far, it has not led to a reduction in the imbalance. Last year, the US trade deficit with China was $419.52 billion.</p>
<p class="p1">Still, there are other issues “on the table.”</p>
<p class="p1">Last week, Larry Kudlow, <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/trade-war-horror-show-grips-china-and-the-us/">the White House economic adviser</a>, told a media briefing that the discussions would cover a vast range of problem areas and could take up to “18 months” to resolve.</p>
<h4>&#8216;Global importance&#8217;</h4>
<p class="p1">“A deal of this size and scope and central global importance, I don’t think 18 months is a very long time.“The stakes are so high, we have to get it right, and if that takes a decade, so be it,” he said, drawing parallels to the Cold War with the old Soviet Union.</p>
<p class="p1">“Everything will be on the table,” Kudlow added. “You can rest assured, for example, the absolute key structural issues – the IP [intellectial property] theft, the forced transfer of technology, the cyberspace, the clouds, financial services, all of that will be on the table – agriculture purchases, industrial purchases, energy purchases, getting tariff and non-tariff barriers down.”</p>
<p class="p1">Since then, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/video/2019/09/12/trump-would-consider-interim-trade-deal?videoId=599583406">his boss President Donald Trump</a> has appeared to row back from that position.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PGQBbkV2khA" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p class="p1">“I see a lot of analysts are saying an interim deal, meaning we’ll do pieces of it, the easy ones first,” he told a media briefing on Thursday. “But there’s no easy or hard. There’s a deal or not a deal<span class="s1"> </span> …<span class="s1"> </span> [An interim agreement is] something we would consider, I guess.”</p>
<p class="p1">Trade war tensions between China and the US have eased during the past 72 hours after Trump decided to delay tariff hikes on Chinese imports worth $250 billion until October 15.</p>
<p class="p1">They were due to kick in on October 1, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.</p>
<p class="p1">“We have agreed, as a gesture of goodwill, to move the increased Tariffs on 250 Billion Dollars worth of goods [25% to 30%], from October 1 to October 15,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday.</p>
<h4>Farming produce</h4>
<p class="p1">Hours later, Xi’s government moved quickly to announce plans to buy more farming produce, <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/china-uses-pork-chop-diplomacy-to-end-trade-war/">such as pork and soybeans</a>, setting the scene for next month’s negotiations in Washington.</p>
<p class="p1">“The whole world is expecting to see progress in China-US negotiations,” Liu pointed out in the Xinhua report.</p>
<p class="p1">In the meantime, the world’s two largest economies are showing signs of stress as the trade conflict drags on into a second year.</p>
<p class="p1">As both sides dig in, the fallout is having a serious impact on global growth, <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2019/09/12/tr091219-transcript-of-the-com-regular-press-briefing">the International Monetary Fund warned</a>.</p>
<p class="p1">Weakening industrial data has sent tremors through the world economy, which is facing challenges not seen since the global financial crisis in 2008.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;Trade tensions &#8230;. are not only a threat but are actually beginning to weigh down the dynamism in the global economy,&#8221; Gerry Rice, the IMF spokesman, said on Thursday. “[US-China tariffs] could potentially reduce the level of global GDP [gross domestic product] by 0.8% in 2020, with additional losses in future years.&#8221;</p>
‘AlienStock’ moved to downtown Las Vegas after Facebook event is cancelled over US military warnings and safety concerns
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/storming-of-area-51-cancelled-now-a-vegas-concert/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/storming-of-area-51-cancelled-now-a-vegas-concert/<p>Let&#8217;s just say, it wasn&#8217;t a good idea to start with. Even though two million people signed up for the &#8220;Storm Area 51&#8221; event on Facebook, the sobering reality that a highly weaponized and secure military base would likely stop them (with extreme prejudice) has come home to roost.</p>
<p>The event, if one can call it that — it was a Facebook joke that got out of hand — has been cancelled, Esquire reported.</p>
<p>It became more official when it was renamed &#8220;AlienStock,&#8221; a pun on the infamous Woodstock concerts. The highly dangerous rushing of a military base has now been repurposed as a friendly music and entertainment festival in &#8230; Las Vegas.</p>
<p>Go to the original Facebook page and you’ll now see the moderators of the page endorsing a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1554092364730812/">music festival</a>, rather than the first idea of running into the base and getting beat up and arrested by US military types.</p>
<p>This festival also hit a speed bump when it was announced that it would be in Rachel, Nevada, the nearest hospitable place to Area 51 — only to have it deemed a major safety risk. It has now been moved to a safer location, far away from the Blackhawk helicopter gunships and &#8220;Cammo Dudes&#8221; in 4x4s who patrol the secret base.</p>
<p>AlienStock explains:</p>
<p><em>“Due to the lack of infrastructure, poor planning, risk management and blatant disregard for the safety of the expected 10,000+ AlienStock attendees, we decided to pull the plug on the festival.” </em></p>
<p>AlienStock is being moved to downtown Las Vegas and will take place on September 19, the day before the storming was meant to happen, Esquire reported.</p>
<p>According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, bands booked for the event include: Brothers of Alien Rock, a costumed power trio in full-on Martian get-ups.</p>
<p>The group — which hails from Alien Rock City, Planet of Rocktronamos (a.k.a. Florida) — is among 20 acts set to attend the event.</p>
<p>The biggest name is Boots Electric, the solo project of Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, the roster of performers includes mostly unsigned indie acts spanning numerous genres, from pop girl group Pynk Le’Monade to R&amp;B singer Bryce Xavier to rockers The Battery Electric to singer-songwriter Lauren Kershner.</p>
<p>See the full lineup at <a href="https://alienstockparking.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">alienstockparking.com</a>.</p>
<p>Area 51, also called Groom Lake and Dreamland, is a max-security US Air Force base which is said to carry out secret testing of advanced aircraft and classified aircraft research. Former physicist Bob Lazar blew the lid off Area 51 in the 1990s, claiming it was involved in back-engineering alien technology.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379605" style="width: 788px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-379605 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-12-at-5.59.48-PM.png" alt="" width="788" height="466" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-12-at-5.59.48-PM.png 788w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-12-at-5.59.48-PM-768x454.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 788px) 100vw, 788px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">So-called &#8220;Cammo Dudes&#8221; who patrol the perimeter at Area 51 in Nevada. File photo.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Although some critics doubt Lazar&#8217;s story, he would predict the discovery of Element 115 — an element which does not occur on earth, but can be created in a cyclotron. Lazar said the gravity wave extended beyond the atom of Element 115, and could be amplified and directed. This allowed alien aircraft to hover in the air, he claimed.</p>
<p>Lazar, who says he was recruited by none other than Edward Teller at Los Alamos, even said that Russian scientists were allowed at Area S-4 (a super-secret area within the base), until a batch of Element 115 mysteriously went missing.</p>
<p>He also described strange, camouflaged hangar doors at Area S-4, that were skewed at the angle of the mountain that contained it, as well as several alien craft held at the facility that were often test flown by person(s) unknown.</p>
<p>Also, a book he was allowed to read at S-4, that explained the history of the aliens and their involvement with earth, an involvement that went back 10,000 years. Lazar said the aliens are from a planet orbiting the twin binary star system Zeta Reticuli, and that they called our planet, Sol 3.</p>
<p>Thanks to Lazar&#8217;s revelations and other UFO researchers, the mysterious base in the desert (the US denied its very existence for decades) has given rise to a plethora of conspiracy theories that say the base is being used for the storage, examination and reverse engineering of crashed UFOs.</p>
<p>As the Area 51 legend goes, even President Dwight Eisenhower was not allowed to know what was going on at the base it was so secret. Angered, he sent them a note carried by a CIA emissary, saying he would invade the base with a potent military force — the First Army.</p>
<p>Only then, did officials relent, and allow the CIA informant to tour the base, who indeed saw alien saucer wreckage, and, allegedly, an imprisoned live Extraterrestrial Biological Entity (EBE) — a living alien &#8220;Grey.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to UFO lore, it&#8217;s believed this alien may have been retrieved from the infamous Roswell, New Mexico, UFO crash in 1947.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379602" style="width: 708px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-379602 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-12-at-5.46.27-PM.png" alt="" width="708" height="426" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-12-at-5.46.27-PM.png 708w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-12-at-5.46.27-PM-300x180.png 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-12-at-5.46.27-PM-600x360.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 708px) 100vw, 708px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">President elect John F. Kennedy, with President Dwight Eisenhower. File photo.</figcaption></figure>
<p>FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, was also present during the debriefing of the CIA agent and his boss over what they had witnessed at S-4 and Area-51. According to the CIA agent, Eisenhower was shocked.</p>
<p>As the story goes, it appeared that Eisenhower had lost control of extraterrestrial related projects to a rogue control group called MJ-12, also known as Majestic 12.</p>
<p>It is said, that President John F. Kennedy was also given a tour of Area 51, but only allowed to see certain areas.</p>
<p>Eisenhower warned Kennedy that Majestic-12 had to be reined in. It posed a direct threat to American liberties and democratic processes.</p>
<p>Kennedy followed Eisenhower’s advice, and was on the verge of succeeding, by forcing the CIA to share classified UFO information with other government agencies. He was assassinated ten days later.</p>
<p>Meantime, US Air Force spokesperson Laura McAndrews released a warning to potential trespassers of &#8220;Storm Area 51&#8221;:</p>
<p><em>“[Area 51] is an open training range for the US Air Force, and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces,”</em> she said.</p>
<p>McAndrews added: <em>“The US Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets.&#8221;</em></p>
<figure id="attachment_379850" style="width: 481px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-379850 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-13-at-1.31.47-PM.png" alt="" width="481" height="280" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Physicist Bob Lazar blew the lid off Area 51 in the 1990s, claiming it was involved in back-engineering alien technology. File photo.</figcaption></figure>
Endless saga shines harsh light on corporate governance, practices and standards
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/nissans-nightmare-shows-why-abenomics-lost-traction/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/nissans-nightmare-shows-why-abenomics-lost-traction/<p>It’s been a devastating few months for Abenomics, the bold scheme long-advertised as Japan’s way back to economic greatness.</p>
<p><a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Japan-s-July-exports-fall-1.6-as-shipments-to-China-plunge" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Japan-s-July-exports-fall-1.6-as-shipments-to-China-plunge&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1568420707847000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGpcboa5W_y26Z4A2Mqhbh-QIKTTA">Exports dropped</a> for an eighth straight month in July and real wages are down a seventh consecutive month as trade war headwinds rock Tokyo’s world. The only thing rising is the yen – signaling more hits to come for exporters.</p>
<p>But the most damning metric may be found in the port city of Yokohama. That is where a steady drip-drip-drop of dismal news at Nissan Motor headquarters is undermining what was perceived to be a big reform win for Japan: a corporate governance “Big Bang.”</p>
<p>Shenanigans by any one company, of course, don’t speak for an entire economy. But the nature of Nissan’s drama encapsulates so many of the reasons Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s revival plan is going off the road.</p>
<h4><strong>From hero to zero</strong></h4>
<p>Nissan first burst into the zeitgeist last November, when Carlos <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nissan-ghosn-explainer/arrested-again-why-ghosn-has-been-detained-what-is-different-now-idUSKCN1RH16C" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nissan-ghosn-explainer/arrested-again-why-ghosn-has-been-detained-what-is-different-now-idUSKCN1RH16C&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1568420707847000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEtuVDPCRk-Y5sHAWy0Dr1XhWabZQ">Ghosn was arrested</a> for underreporting his compensation. That itself was bad enough: The Brazilian-born, Lebanese-raised Frenchman is by far Japan’s most fabled and splashiest modern chieftain, for it was he who pulled off one of Japan Inc’s most audacious turnarounds.</p>
<p>In 1999, Ghosn, then 45, arrived in Yokohama to address a debt-ridden corporate disaster veering toward irrelevance. He cut debt, pushed engineers to restore Nissan’s global standing and returned it to profitability.</p>
<p>The unlikely feat – by a<em> gaijin</em> (foreigner) no less! – inspired “<a href="https://www.ozy.com/need-to-know/comic-superhero-to-international-villain-the-rise-and-fall-of-carlos-ghosn/90771" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ozy.com/need-to-know/comic-superhero-to-international-villain-the-rise-and-fall-of-carlos-ghosn/90771&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1568420707847000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEGdj_VzAMcKJ0slm1SlKJ3UQkObw">The True Life of Carlos Ghosn</a>” manga series. Ghosn then went on to oversee the broader Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi alliance.</p>
<p>Given his many achievements, his downfall shocked Japan. The torrent of disturbing news since has been shocking the world.</p>
<p>At first, Nissan tried to dismiss Ghosn as an aberration. He’d essentially let his glowing press — and manga series — go to his head. And, clearly, he went too far with his off-the-books pay schemes, private-jet fleets and Nissan-funded properties around the globe.</p>
<p>But now we know, it was not just Ghosn.</p>
<p>Last week, we learned Ghosn’s protege and successor, Hiroto Saikawa, harbored his own compensation scandal. Days after news broke that Saikawa improperly received the equivalent of US$443,000 as part of a performance-based bonus scheme, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/10/nissans-ceo-exit-complicates-turnaround-efforts-as-corruption-scandal-spreads.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/10/nissans-ceo-exit-complicates-turnaround-efforts-as-corruption-scandal-spreads.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1568420707847000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFECsl7cyrAxralxeYEflN8yqJFfQ">he resigned</a>.</p>
<p>Saikawa’s downfall, and Ghosn’s before him, was the financial equivalent of flipping on the kitchen light switch only to find an assortment of critters scurrying about.</p>
<p>The trouble is, those critters are turning up in all too many of Japan Inc’s biggest companies — companies that Abenomics was supposed to have pulled into the 21st century.</p>
<h4><strong>Not just Nissan…</strong></h4>
<p>In 2014 Abe had rolled out a UK-like stewardship code. In 2015, Tokyo took steps to give shareholders a greater voice in corporate decisions. Since then, policies aimed at increasing the number of outside directors and publishing data on cross-shareholdings relationships.</p>
<p>Yet the last 24 months have served up reminder after reminder that Japan Inc. still answers to no one.</p>
<p>From Kobe Steel to Mitsubishi Materials to earthquake shock absorber maker KYB, Japan has seen an explosion in <a href="http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201810190036.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201810190036.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1568420707847000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF_7uhYOaFEjm6dkEpk104pUQpwzg">quality-control scandals</a>.</p>
<p>Suruga Bank, a regional Shizuoka lender, ran afoul of regulators. Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, Suzuki, Yamaha and others were embroiled in emissions-data snafus. Olympus and Toshiba, the sources of two of Japan’s biggest accounting scandals in recent years, stayed in the headlines.</p>
<p>The chaos in Yokohama is going further to prove Abe’s reforms lack teeth. Too much of what he’s done since 2014 is voluntary. It means that for all the hype about Japan moving forward, all too many of the bad old corporate ways remain.</p>
<p>To many global investors, Nissan’s opacity seemed to have more in common with China Inc. than the new Japan punters hoped Abe was creating. Odd, too, is how reticent Abe’s team and top business lobby officials are about calling out Nissan’s role in tarnishing the Japan brand.</p>
<p>On the one hand, Ghosn’s treatment by prosecutors and the police belied Abe’s spin that Japan wants to welcome more foreign talent.</p>
<p>Initially, for example, Ghosn was detained for 108 days for questioning with little access to lawyers or family. Once released in March, he was re-arrested for 21 days. He’s now under house arrest.</p>
<p>Ghosn’s incarceration sparked international outrage over Japan’s “<a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Nissan-s-Ghosn-crisis/Ghosn-case-looks-to-shake-up-Japan-s-hostage-justice" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Nissan-s-Ghosn-crisis/Ghosn-case-looks-to-shake-up-Japan-s-hostage-justice&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1568420707847000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFppSF_BLi0cCIzgZplMk2d34K7dQ">hostage justice</a>” system – which hardly looks either foreign-friendly, or, indeed, up to global standards.</p>
<p>On the other hand, Ghosn’s ouster had all the hallmarks of a palace coup. Once gone, top Nissan officials, including Saikawa, attacked him in the media. The spectacle highlighted how Abe’s corporate reforms are more cosmetic than substantive.</p>
<h4><strong>Japan Inc. stuck in a rut </strong></h4>
<p>In this, things look little different to the broader restructuring shock therapy Abenomics promised.</p>
<p>If companies were acting more creatively and internationally, Japan’s domestic investment rates would be skyrocketing. Executives might embrace merit-based pay and promotion policies and boost productivity. They might take risks to rekindle Japan’s innovative mojo.</p>
<p>A corporate sector stuck in the past makes it hard for the broader economy to step forward. Or to get Abe’s revival roadmap out of first gear.</p>
<p>Events in Yokohama remind us that unless Tokyo raises its reform ambitions, Asia’s No. 2 economy will find itself going into reverse.</p>
New Zealand might have lost their No 1 rugby ranking but they are still hot World Cup favorites
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/all-blacks-aim-to-prove-theyre-out-of-this-world/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/all-blacks-aim-to-prove-theyre-out-of-this-world/<p class="p1">New Zealand will be made to fight all the way for a third consecutive title as a ground-breaking Rugby World Cup gets under way in Japan next week with half a dozen teams confident of jockeying for the William Webb Ellis trophy.</p>
<p class="p1">While the bookmakers have the All Blacks as clear favorites, they will not be the No 1-ranked team at the month-long tournament. Ireland has taken that mantle after two warm-up wins over Six Nations Grand Slam champions Wales.</p>
<p class="p1">But there is no doubt about the strength in depth of coach Steve Hansen&#8217;s team – a side that features three former World Rugby Players of the Year in skipper Kieran Read, influential lock Brodie Retallick and playmaker Beauden Barrett.</p>
<p class="p1">The All Blacks&#8217; kick off on September 21 with what promises to be a humdinger of a Pool B match against South Africa. The two-time champions are skippered for the first time in a World Cup by a black player, flanker Siya Kolisi.</p>
<p class="p1">Italy, Namibia and Canada make up the pool, so that match against the Springboks will very likely decide the group winner, who will go on to play the runner-up in a Pool A, which features Ireland, Scotland and Japan.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;We love the draw because it&#8217;s meant we&#8217;ve turned up and there&#8217;s no excuses, no waiting for us to get used to the intensity – it&#8217;s right there in front of us,&#8221; Ian Foster, the All Blacks assistant coach, said.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;We&#8217;re about to face a very confident South African team, but they&#8217;re going to face a very determined All Blacks team – we know South Africa are going to be 100% prepared and we&#8217;ve got to make sure we are too.&#8221;</p>
<h4>Six Nations</h4>
<p class="p1">Ireland, twice winners over New Zealand in 2016 and 2018, headline Pool A which also includes Six Nations rivals Scotland, hosts Japan, and Russia and Samoa.</p>
<p class="p1">There is no doubt that Ireland&#8217;s Kiwi coach Joe Schmidt, whose pedigree includes a Top 14 title with French club Clermont, two European Cups with Leinster and back-to-back Six Nations titles with Ireland in 2014 and 2015, has girded a solid team capable of dreaming of going beyond the quarter-finals for a first time in their history.</p>
<p class="p1">Key to that is current World Rugby player of the year Jonny Sexton.</p>
<p class="p1">The 34-year-old playmaker makes Ireland tick, but they need him to regain the masterful form he has struggled to find in recent months.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;Yes we would love to make that semi-final and I don&#8217;t set goals,&#8221; Schmidt admitted. &#8220;So it is not even a goal, it is a dream I have that I would love to see come to fruition.&#8221;</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fa3I6uZnHAg" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p class="p1">Home fans, meanwhile, will be hoping that Japan can recreate their famous 34-32 win over South Africa in the 2015 World Cup, the biggest upset in the sport at elite level.</p>
<p class="p1">The &#8220;Brave Blossoms&#8221; also notched up pool victories over Samoa and USA four years ago, becoming the first team to win three group matches and not progress to the quarter-finals.</p>
<p class="p1">The coach of Japan in 2015 was the canny, much-travelled Australian Eddie Jones, now in charge of Pool C headliners England, the sole northern hemisphere winners of the World Cup, back in 2003.</p>
<p class="p1">Owen Farrell will lead an English team featuring the skilful likes of hooker Jamie George and ubiquitous lock Maro Itoje, desperate to banish memories of 2015, when they became the first host nation to not qualify for the quarter-finals following defeats by pool rivals Australia and Wales.</p>
<p class="p1">Their path to the knockout stages is by no means straightforward, however, with France and Argentina having been drawn in Pool C, along with the United States and Tonga.</p>
<h4>Young guns</h4>
<p class="p1">France have reached six World Cup semi-finals, but have been beset for the past three years by a number of poor performances.</p>
<p class="p1">Coach Jacques Brunel, aided by Fabien Galthie, who takes over full-time after the World Cup, has shown faith in a raft of young guns such as Toulouse half-backs Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack and fullback Thomas Ramos, and exciting Clermont wing Damian Penaud.</p>
<p class="p1">Pool D has shades of 2015 about it as Wales, twice champions Australia and Fiji are again drawn together, along with Georgia and minnows Uruguay.</p>
<p class="p1">Wales coach Warren Gatland, who like Hansen, Schmidt and Brunel will step down after the tournament, predicted a wide-open tournament in the battle to take the title from holders New Zealand.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;I think this is the most open World Cup we&#8217;ve had for a long time. There are six or seven teams capable of winning the World Cup,&#8221; Gatland, who has guided Wales to four Six Nations titles, three Grand Slams and the 2011 World Cup semi-final in his 12-year tenure, said.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;You always need a little bit of luck. You get to the quarter-finals and then take it one game at a time,” he added.</p>
<p class="p1"><em>&#8211; AFP</em></p>
Robot developers are keenly aware that overly trusting weapons systems could present serious dangers to humanity
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/us-navy-keeps-close-watch-on-terminator-scenario/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/us-navy-keeps-close-watch-on-terminator-scenario/<p>The image is forever burned into the minds of movie goers &#8230; Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cyborg assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whose son will one day become a savior against killer machines in a post-apocalyptic future of artificial intelligence gone awry.</p>
<p>Pure fiction, you say? Not if you ask the US Navy.</p>
<p>According to a Navy official, it is making efforts to prevent Skynet — the fictional intelligence computer network that attempts to destroy humanity in the Terminator series — from becoming a reality as it continues efforts to field evermore capable robots, Defense News reported.</p>
<p>As the service works to build autonomous capabilities, trust is an ever-present concern for those charged with testing and evaluating the safety of the systems they are developing, said Steve Olsen, deputy branch head of the Navy’s mine warfare office.</p>
<p>But the developers are keenly aware that overly trusting weapons systems can present serious dangers, the report said.</p>
<p>“Trust is something that is difficult to come by with a computer, especially as we start working with our test and evaluation community,” Olsen said. “I’ve worked with our test and evaluation director, and a lot of times it’s: ‘Hey, what’s that thing going to do?’ And I say: &#8216;I don’t know, it’s going to pick the best path.’</p>
<p>“And they don’t like that at all because autonomy makes a lot of people nervous. But the flip side of this is that there is one thing that we have to be very careful of, and that’s that we don’t over-trust. Everybody has seen on the news [when people] over-trusted their Tesla car. That is something that we can’t do when we talk about weapons’ system.&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>“The last thing we want to see is the whole ‘Terminator going crazy’ [scenario], so we’re working very hard to take the salient steps to protect ourselves and others.”</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ih_l0vBISOE?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>According to Popular Science, in August 2010, US Navy operators on the ground lost all contact with an unarmed Fire Scout helicopter flying over Maryland. They had programmed the unmanned aerial vehicle to return to its launch point if ground communications failed, but instead the machine took off on a north-by-northwest route toward the nation&#8217;s capital.</p>
<p>Over the next 30 minutes, anxious military officials alerted the Federal Aviation Administration and North American Aerospace Defense Command and readied F-16 fighters to intercept the pilotless craft.</p>
<p>Finally, with the Fire Scout just miles shy of the White House, the Navy regained control and commanded it to come home. &#8220;Renegade Unmanned Drone Wandered Skies Near Nation&#8217;s Capital,&#8221; warned one news headline in the following days. &#8220;UAV Resists Its Human Oppressors, Joyrides over Washington, D.C.,&#8221; declared another.</p>
<p>Hardly a machine with the degree of intelligence or autonomy necessary to wise up and rise up, as science fiction tells us the robots inevitably will do, it was still a wake-up call.</p>
<p>No surprise that the Pentagon is actively looking for the right person to help it navigate the morally murky waters of artificial intelligence and the battlefield of the 21st century.</p>
<p>“One of the positions we are going to fill will be someone who’s not just looking at technical standards, but who’s an ethicist,” Lt.-Gen. Jack Shanahan, director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), told The Guardian last week.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379833" style="width: 752px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-379833 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-13-at-11.24.00-AM.png" alt="" width="752" height="403" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The US Navy is experimenting with a 135-ton ship named the Sea Hunter that could patrol the oceans without a crew, looking for submarines it could one day attack directly. Handout.</figcaption></figure>
<p>“We are thinking deeply about the ethical, safe and lawful use of AI,” he said. “At its core, we are in a contest for the character of the international order in the digital age. Along with our allies and partners, we want to lead and ensure that that character reflects the values and interests of free and democratic societies. I do not see China or Russia placing the same kind of emphasis in these areas.”</p>
<p>Olsen said the Navy is making great strides in getting autonomous systems to work together to perform complicated tasks, pointing to the Navy’s recent demonstration of single-sortie mine hunting, the report said.</p>
<p>And central to that is the creation of a common control system, or CCS, from which sailors can operate multiple systems. The problem, however, is the fragmentation of unmanned systems acquisition; there are several different systems in the fleet doing different things, Olsen said.</p>
<p>“One of the biggest challenges we have with autonomy,” Olsen said, “is that all of these unmanned systems go out into acquisition, and the requirements folks have always just said: &#8216;We need it to be an open-systems architecture.’ So industry brings us their version, and the problem is I’ve got 10 different open-systems architectures and none of them work together.</p>
<p>“As we move forward, you bring in more information where these systems start working together until ultimately you get to a level where you have more of a mission commander role, where the system has a type of knowledge,” he said. &#8220;That’s where trusting, but not over-trusting, comes into play,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>According to a report in The Atlantic, the Navy is experimenting with a 135-ton ship named the Sea Hunter that could patrol the oceans without a crew, looking for submarines it could one day attack directly. In a test, the ship has already sailed the 2,500 miles from Hawaii to California on its own, although without any weapons.</p>
<p>The Army is also developing a new system for its tanks that can smartly pick targets and point a gun at them. It is also developing a missile system, called the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM), that has the ability to pick out vehicles to attack without human say-so.</p>
<p>And the Air Force is working on a pilotless version of its storied F-16 fighter jet as part of its provocatively named “SkyBorg” program, which could one day carry substantial armaments into a computer-managed battle.</p>
To qualify for the incentives, companies must invest (US$32.7 million) or more and carry out the investment by 2021
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/thailand-offers-50-tax-break-to-firms-fleeing-china/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/thailand-offers-50-tax-break-to-firms-fleeing-china/<p>Thailand’s government has announced a package of incentives for companies to relocate production to Thailand from China. Including a 50% tax break, to lure companies affected by the China-US trade war, Chiang Rai Times reported.</p>
<p>To qualify for the incentives, companies must invest (US$32.7 million) or more in the country and carry out the investment by 2021.</p>
<p>Approved investors in Thailand will see their corporate tax obligations reduced by half for five years, the report said.</p>
<p>Thailand is actively jockeying for foreign investment against neighbors such as Vietnam, as it seeks to move its manufacturing sector into high-value activities.</p>
<p>Forty-eight multinationals including US chip-maker Western Digital are considering relocating to Thailand from China, Thailand’s Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council has reported.</p>
<p>&#8220;Under the new package, Thailand can compete with other countries in Asia for foreign investment, especially to attract advanced technology firms that want to move production to Thailand,&#8221; Kobsak Pootrakool, an official in the prime minister&#8217;s office, said at an economic policy meeting, Nikkei Asian Review reported.</p>
<p>Beyond offering a tax cut, the government also will create a single portal that advises companies on their applications and allows them to file.</p>
<p>To encourage training of skilled workers, tax breaks will be offered to offset the cost of building training centers and providing employee development programs. Labor rules will be eased to help skilled foreigners work in Thailand.</p>
<p>Facilitating speedier approvals for foreign investors will be important, said Nattapol Rangsitpol, a director general in an Industry Ministry office that works closely with the Board of Investment, Channel News Asia (CNA) reported.</p>
<p>In seeking to attract investors affected by the trade war, &#8220;we have to understand that they are escaping death, so speed is important,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have to enable them to set up factories quickly, produce quickly and sell quickly,&#8221; Nattapol added.</p>
<p>Strict immigration and reporting rules have affected investors, who complained they were treated like criminals, he said.</p>
Beijing endorses plan by DAB for HK government buy-up of land owned by developers and construction of affordable housing for young people
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hong-kong-property-tycoons-in-beijings-crosshairs/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hong-kong-property-tycoons-in-beijings-crosshairs/<p>Beijing has endorsed a plan for action on the housing crisis in Hong Kong, which is increasingly seen as a key root cause of protests that have wracked the city for more than three months.</p>
<p>It has backed a proposal by the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, a pro-mainland political party, to make full use of powers and rights granted to the government under the Lands Resumption Ordinance to expropriate private land to boost supply, particularly plots for public rental units.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2019-09-12/doc-iicezueu5418185.shtml">opinion piece</a> in The People&#8217;s Daily on Friday, which was widely shared by news portals and on social media, said Hong Kong&#8217;s perennial housing woes were caused by &#8220;developers defending their vested interests&#8221; to stall state land plans or fight efforts to curb runaway property prices – and this had fanned people&#8217;s mistrust of the authorities.</p>
<p>&#8220;Many apolitical young people became disillusioned and were then instigated to take to the streets to protest against the government. The underlying reason is their hopelessness, like owning a home&#8230; Hong Kong should wait no more,&#8221; the piece concluded. It echoed calls to shake up the city&#8217;s operating systems, which appear skewed towards the well-off.</p>
<p>The article noted that taking back land from private owners – in most cases chunks owned by developers but which have laid bare for years – is a delicate &#8220;rebalancing act&#8221; between private property rights and public interest. But it said the city&#8217;s Basic Law has a specific clause regarding compensation when a person is deprived of land or home, which says it must correspond to the real current value of the property.</p>
<p>&#8220;For the sake of the public and livelihood, it is high time that realty developers showed sincerity and goodwill, when in the past they raked it in by hoarding plots and dictating prices&#8230; They should reflect on themselves on how to shoulder their responsibilities for Hong Kong and genuinely &#8216;give a way out&#8217; for youngsters,&#8221; the op-ed said.</p>
<h4>&#8216;Extreme capitalist system&#8217;</h4>
<p>Meanwhile, Hu Xijin, chief editor of the Global Times, a tabloid under the People&#8217;s Daily umbrella, also lashed out at Hong Kong&#8217;s &#8220;extreme capitalist system&#8221; and said the government&#8217;s lack of intervention and political opponents were making livelihood issues worse.</p>
<p>Having visited grassroots families and witnessed their plight living in the city&#8217;s notorious subdivided flats and even &#8220;cage homes&#8221;, Hu argued in his <a href="https://china.huanqiu.com/article/9CaKrnKmFEE">column</a> that the entire nation should pool resources and efforts to prod and help Hong Kong solve its housing crisis.</p>
<p>&#8220;The central government would have long acted on [the housing and livelihood problems], if Hong Kong was a mainland city,&#8221; Hu claimed.</p>
<p>Hong Kong chief executive <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-protests/hong-kong-protesters-take-to-the-hills-as-leader-pledges-housing-reform-idUSKCN1VY06G">Carrie Lam</a> also promised this week to focus on housing and jobs in a bid to try to end the unrest. In a Facebook post, Lam said her government would boost the supply of homes. “Housing and people’s livelihoods are the main priorities. The government will add to housing supply measures which will be continuously put in place and not missed.”</p>
<h4>&#8216;Allow them a way out&#8217;</h4>
<p>The People&#8217;s Daily report, meanwhile, suggested developers such as Hong Kong&#8217;s richest man, Li Ka-shing, could have done a lot more to help poor people in the city get affordable housing.</p>
<p>Indeed, the remarks are a sharp rebuke of Li, who made a rare appearance at a monastery in the city last weekend, where he appealed to the government to &#8220;allow a way out&#8221; for the city&#8217;s disenfranchised and dissenting youth.</p>
<p>Li, who is 91 and has a net worth of at least US$40 billion, made comments that were captured on video by visitors at the Buddhist convent. He told people that Hong Kong was in its most precarious moment since World War II and that the protracted turmoil sweeping the city for over three months must be stopped.</p>
<p>He called on young protesters venting their anger on the streets to focus on the big picture and reconcile themselves to reality for the sake of Hong Kong, and urged the government to also allow a way out for the young, saying they will be future leaders of the city.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379721" style="width: 845px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-379721" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screenshot-2019-09-13-at-4.25.23-PM.png" alt="" width="845" height="551" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screenshot-2019-09-13-at-4.25.23-PM.png 845w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screenshot-2019-09-13-at-4.25.23-PM-768x501.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 845px) 100vw, 845px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Li Ka-shing appeals to the government to &#8216;allow a way out&#8217; for youngsters protesting on the streets. Photo: Facebook</figcaption></figure>
<p>Predictably, the business mogul&#8217;s advice – indeed, little more than saying &#8216;stop it&#8217; – fell on deaf ears as Hong Kong lurched into another day of mass rallies and vandalism.</p>
<h4>Li and Lee</h4>
<p>Li has been slow to help government moves to alleviate the city&#8217;s housing crisis and his lack of action stands out.</p>
<p>Lee Shau-kee – Hong Kong&#8217;s second-richest tycoon, who founded Henderson Land Development – has made an effort to escape public ire by token donation of some plots to the government so it could build hostels and rental units for fresh graduates and job-starters.</p>
<p><img class="size-full wp-image-379723" style="font-family: NonBreakingSpaceOverride, 'Hoefler Text', 'Baskerville Old Face', Garamond, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px;" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screenshot-2019-09-13-at-4.30.02-PM.png" alt="" width="832" height="623" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screenshot-2019-09-13-at-4.30.02-PM.png 832w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screenshot-2019-09-13-at-4.30.02-PM-768x575.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 832px) 100vw, 832px" /><span style="color: #767676; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Fira Sans', 'Droid Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.71111em; text-align: center;">Tenement blocks flank an alley in Hong Kong&#8217;s Mong Kok. The city is infamous for its sky-high property prices and cramped living spaces. Photo: Asia Times</span></p>
<figure id="attachment_379726" style="width: 833px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-379726" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screenshot-2019-09-13-at-4.35.14-PM.png" alt="" width="833" height="621" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screenshot-2019-09-13-at-4.35.14-PM.png 833w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screenshot-2019-09-13-at-4.35.14-PM-768x573.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 833px) 100vw, 833px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">An old public housing estate in Hong Kong&#8217;s Kennedy Town. Some flats there are barely bigger than a prison cell. Photo: Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<p>Li Ka-shing&#8217;s ties with Beijing are also on the wane. He has been censured by the Chinese media after his perceived divestment from the mainland and unwinding of his property assets there in 2015, plus recent major corporate purchases in the UK.</p>
<p>The billionaire used to visit Zhongnanhai regularly during Deng Xiaoping&#8217;s rule, as well as the presidency of Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. But he has been shunned by Xi Jinping, who has not met Li one-on-one, and Li&#8217;s property arm has not bought land north of the border since 2012, the year Xi came into power.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379729" style="width: 685px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-379729" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screenshot-2019-09-13-at-4.39.01-PM.png" alt="" width="685" height="441" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A file photo of Li with former Chinese President Jiang Zemin. Photo: Handout</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_379736" style="width: 782px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-379736" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screenshot-2019-09-13-at-4.51.06-PM.png" alt="" width="782" height="541" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screenshot-2019-09-13-at-4.51.06-PM.png 782w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screenshot-2019-09-13-at-4.51.06-PM-768x531.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 782px) 100vw, 782px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Li put ads in several papers in late August condemning violence. But to Beijing, it took Li more than two months to take a stand and pledge allegiance. Photo: Facebook</figcaption></figure>
Participants will hold lanterns as a symbol of unity on Friday night
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hk-protesters-to-form-human-chain-for-festival/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hk-protesters-to-form-human-chain-for-festival/<p>Calling on people to carry lanterns and form a human chain across Hong Kong, protesters are preparing for the second “Hong Kong Way” on Friday night, the Mid-Autumn Festival.</p>
<p>“Be Water – Mid-Autumn Lanterns Appreciation Gala” is being held in parks in various districts to celebrate the full moon with “entertainments” including chanting slogans, singing songs and forming a human chain.</p>
<p>So far, people have responded positively to the call in Tsing Yi, Tsuen Wan in the New Territories as well as Quarry Bay and Sai Wan Ho on Hong Kong Island.</p>
<p>Some people plan to stage sit-ins at shopping malls and form human chains at Victoria Peak and Lion Rock.</p>
<p>However, the city’s rail operator, the MTR Corp. said it won’t be running overnight services after assessing public security risks in conjunction with government officials.</p>
<p>The decision was made in response to radical protesters targeting MTR stations in recent weeks, vandalizing ticket machines and turnstiles. Their anger was sparked by a decision to close stations near planned protest sites over the past few weeks.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the police on Friday rejected a permission request from the Civil Human Rights Front for a march on Sunday on Hong Kong Island, citing safety concerns.</p>
<p>The Civil Human Rights Front, which organized two massive marches in June that attracted three million peaceful people, originally planned a march starting in Causeway Bay and ending in Central. However, the police said they believed the participants would deviate from the planned route, threatening public safety.</p>
<p>They said violence, road blockages and destruction resulted from previous marches organized by the group.</p>
<p>Police have banned a number of protests in recent weeks, but most protesters have demonstrated regardless.</p>
<p>Jimmy Sham, the convenor, said they are disappointed with the police decision, saying it&#8217;s unreasonable for the police to suppress freedom of assembly.</p>
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<div class="articlelogin"><span style="font-family: abril-text, georgia, times, serif; font-size: 17px;">The front&#8217;s vice-convenor, Bonnie Leung, said the ban is only making people more angry, and could even radicalize others. </span><span style="font-family: abril-text, georgia, times, serif; font-size: 17px;">&#8220;If peaceful protests don&#8217;t work, or are not permitted at all, it&#8217;s human nature that people will go more and more radical, people will escalate their action. It is like declaring war on even the most peaceful protesters,&#8221; she said.</span></div>
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<div class="articlelogin"><span style="font-family: abril-text, georgia, times, serif; font-size: 17px;">Earlier in the day, the appeal board also upheld a police ban on a march that had been planned in Tin Shui Wai on Saturday, citing safety concerns.</span></div>
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<div class="articlelogin"><span style="font-family: abril-text, georgia, times, serif; font-size: 17px;">Protesters originally planned to conduct another “stress test” of the airport on Saturday. However, according to the latest schedule on<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIHKG"> LIHKG</a>, online citizens postponed the event. P</span><span style="font-family: abril-text, georgia, times, serif; font-size: 17px;">revious actions led to the cancellation or delay of flights, blocked roads, street fires, and various types of damage at Tung Chung MTR station.</span></div>
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<p><strong><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/protesters-form-human-chain-across-hong-kong/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read: Protesters form human chain across Hong Kong</a></strong></p>
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Islamic State-linked groups deploy new extreme tactic that authorities want more legal powers to combat
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/suicide-bombs-new-terror-norm-in-the-philippines/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/suicide-bombs-new-terror-norm-in-the-philippines/<p>The Philippines is grappling with a string of suicide bombings carried out by Islamic State-affiliated groups bent on establishing a caliphate in the archipelagic nation’s southern region.</p>
<p>The tactic, frequently deployed in Middle Eastern and South Asian conflicts but until now unseen in the Southeast Asian nation, is fast changing the complexion of Philippine terrorism as long-running, low-intensity insurgent conflicts become increasingly internationalized.</p>
<p>Most recently, a female suicide bomber authorities described as “Caucasian-looking” attempted a daring suicide attack on a military checkpoint this month in Indanan, Sulu, a region long wracked by insurgency and terrorism.</p>
<p>“The way she walked, she seemed confused, as though uneasy, and she was alone,” said Lieutenant General Cirilito Sobejana, Western Mindanao Command chief, after soldiers foiled the attack.</p>
<p>“She was holding the trigger mechanism, so we really can say that it was a suicide bombing,” Sobejana added, confirming perhaps the first known female suicide terror attack attempt on Philippine soil.</p>
<figure id="attachment_275117" style="width: 1278px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-275117" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Philippines-Islamic-State-Militants-Terrorism-2018-e1550737425838.jpg" alt="Islamic State fighters in a radicalization video clip targeting the Philippines. Photo: Youtube" width="1278" height="862" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Philippines-Islamic-State-Militants-Terrorism-2018-e1550737425838.jpg 1278w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Philippines-Islamic-State-Militants-Terrorism-2018-e1550737425838-768x518.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1278px) 100vw, 1278px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Islamic State fighters in a radicalization video clip targeting the Philippines. Photo: Youtube</figcaption></figure>
<p>Philippine authorities believe the captured perpetrator was operating under the command of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), one of the region’s most notorious Islamic State-aligned terrorist organizations.</p>
<p>ASG’s leader, Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, is widely believed to be positioning himself to become Islamic State’s next designated emir in Southeast Asia. Security agents suspect he is trying to score high profile terrorist hits, including through suicide attacks, to bolster his candidacy with the international terror group’s chief leaders.</p>
<p>Islamic State’s previous emir in Southeast Asia, Isnilon Hapilon, also of the ASG, was killed during the months-long 2017 siege of Marawi, the Philippines only majority Muslim city.</p>
<p>Philippine Islamic State leader Benito Marohombsar, also known as Abu Dar, was also killed in the clashes, according to DNA tests Philippine security officials said were confirmed by US counterparts.</p>
<p>The Philippine military’s costly victory at Marawi scattered the terror operatives across the country. That, analysts say, raises questions about whether Islamic State’s aligned groups’ new use of suicide attacks is a sign of strength or weakness.</p>
<p>This month’s attempted attack marked the third suicide bombing operation by Islamic State-affiliated groups in the Philippines this year, according to official information.</p>
<p>In January, an Indonesian couple self-detonated inside a Catholic cathedral in Jolo, Sulu, during a Sunday service, killing 23 and injuring more than 100 others. In late June, two men, including a Filipino, blew themselves up at an army camp in Indanan, killing seven individuals.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-134723" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Philippines-Terror-Groups-Abu-Sayyaf-Maute-Group-Islamic-State-May-26-2017-e1550737504924.jpg" alt="map-Philippines-Terror Groups-Abu Sayyaf-Maute Group-Islamic State-May 26-2017" width="1293" height="1137" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Philippines-Terror-Groups-Abu-Sayyaf-Maute-Group-Islamic-State-May-26-2017-e1550737504924.jpg 1293w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Philippines-Terror-Groups-Abu-Sayyaf-Maute-Group-Islamic-State-May-26-2017-e1550737504924-768x675.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1293px) 100vw, 1293px" /></p>
<p>Though jihadist groups have been active in the southern Philippines for decades, they had until now largely shunned extreme tactics such as suicide bombings.</p>
<p>Officials and experts had chalked that up to the region’s largely moderate brand of Islam, which has mostly shirked Islamic jurisprudence and fundamentalist interpretations of the Koran.</p>
<p>But Islamic State’s recent entry to the region has brought with it more extreme views and violent tactics.</p>
<p>On July 31, 2018, Islamic State operatives conducted the first-ever suicide bombing operation in the Philippines, when a suspected foreign militant drove a van that exploded at a military checkpoint at the outskirts of Basilan in Sulu, killing ten including a child.</p>
<p>Just months earlier, an Indonesian family including four teenage children, carried out simultaneous suicide bombings in three churches in Surabaya, Indonesia, killing 13 and wounding 41 individuals.</p>
<p>Philippine officials say they are now on high alert for more suicide attacks that target major cities across the country. As one military official asked this writer, “How can you stop someone who is determined to die?”</p>
<p>As Islamic State-aligned groups escalate their terror tactics, including through suicide bombings, Philippine officials are weighing potentially extreme countermeasures, including tougher laws that could curb certain rights and liberties.</p>
<p>Those curbs are already in place in Mindanao, where martial law was imposed during and after the Marawi siege. The provision, which imposes curfews and suspends various civil liberties, is now under an official review after being extended indefinitely to combat terrorist threats.</p>
<p>Civil society groups, business leaders and opposition statesman have all argued to lift martial law, arguing that the restrictions have undermined business confidence, dented the local economy and built local resentments.</p>
<figure id="attachment_265034" style="width: 1588px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-265034" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Philippines-Soldiers-Military-Rodrigo-Duterte-Salute-March-19-2018-e1568375945453.jpg" alt="Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (in video screen) salutes along with soldiers during the 121st founding anniversary of Philippine army at the army headquarters in Manila on March 20, 2018. Photo: AFP/Ted Aljibe" width="1588" height="1148" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Philippines-Soldiers-Military-Rodrigo-Duterte-Salute-March-19-2018-e1568375945453.jpg 1588w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Philippines-Soldiers-Military-Rodrigo-Duterte-Salute-March-19-2018-e1568375945453-768x555.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Philippines-Soldiers-Military-Rodrigo-Duterte-Salute-March-19-2018-e1568375945453-1568x1134.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1588px) 100vw, 1588px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (in video screen) salutes along with soldiers during the 121st founding anniversary of Philippine army at the army headquarters in Manila on March 20, 2018. Photo: AFP/Ted Aljibe</figcaption></figure>
<p>&#8220;We cannot tolerate an unlimited martial law,” said Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon in late July while highlighting the law’s detrimental economic and social impacts.</p>
<p>&#8220;As I said before, martial law is like an antibiotic, and when an antibiotic is used excessively it becomes ineffective,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>The uptick in more extreme terror attacks, including suicide bombings, is nonetheless strengthening the hands of officials who favor a tougher approach to counterterrorism.</p>
<p>&#8220;Whether to extend or not, it&#8217;s too early for me to tell&#8230;I have to hear the assessment of the police and the military,” Interior Secretary and former military chief Eduardo Año told the author last month in a mix of English and Tagalog.</p>
<p>“For me, I&#8217;m open to lifting martial law in some areas that we can say are safe, with stable peace and order.&#8221;</p>
<p>However, Año said that newly elected mayors he spoke with in the region have asked him to maintain martial law until the situation stabilizes. “I think they’re already tired of violence in Mindanao,” he said in the interview.</p>
<p>In that direction, Philippine officials are pushing for new counterterrorism legislation to strengthen the hands of security agencies, including in their ability to deal with suicide bomb threats.</p>
<p>Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, for one, is pushing for amendments to existing legislation, including the Human Security Act, to allow for easier wiretapping and detention of suspected terrorists.</p>
<p>Other senior officials, including Duterte’s Cabinet secretary Karlo Nograles, have called for legislative amendments to give counterterrorism laws “more teeth” and thus will “not require an extension of martial law” to combat extremist threats.</p>
80% of respondents said city’s turmoil has affected their investment decisions; Singapore is the top relocation destination
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/amcham-survey-shows-hk-losing-its-corporate-edge/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/amcham-survey-shows-hk-losing-its-corporate-edge/<p>A new American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore (AmCham) survey, conducted in collaboration with market researcher Ipsos, gives arguably the clearest indication yet of how business sentiment and investment decisions are being impacted by Hong Kong’s three-month-old political crisis.</p>
<p>Sixty-seven percent of senior managers, business directors and chief executive officers (CEOs) from company respondents said that Hong Kong’s reputation as a regional base of operations for businesses has been tarnished, according to the survey’s findings released on September 12.</p>
<p>Eighty percent of respondents, meanwhile, indicated that Hong Kong’s political turmoil has affected their future decisions to invest in the city. Sentiment is generally more conservative among companies without a business presence in Hong Kong (88%), compared to those with office space in the city (75%), the survey showed.</p>
<p>Over 20% said they were considering whether to move capital or relocate business functions out of Hong Kong, though more than 70% of respondents said they had no such plans. Among those companies considering to relocate, 91% indicated that their preferred destination would be Singapore.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, a majority of respondents believe that the Southeast Asian financial hub will benefit economically from Hong Kong’s protracted instability. Perceptions that Singapore will benefit were higher among companies planning or considering moving operations from Hong Kong (86%) compared with those not planning a move (64%).</p>
<p>Among companies with operations in Hong Kong, the protests have had a minimal impact on decisions to move business functions and capital out of the city. Only 5% said their companies had shifted financial assets elsewhere, while only 1% of respondents said their business had relocated its operations because of the protests.</p>
<figure id="attachment_365826" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-365826" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Hong-Kong-Protests-Umbrellas-July-28-Nile-Bowie-e1564371699234.jpeg" alt="" width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Hong-Kong-Protests-Umbrellas-July-28-Nile-Bowie-e1564371699234.jpeg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Hong-Kong-Protests-Umbrellas-July-28-Nile-Bowie-e1564371699234-768x513.jpeg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Hong-Kong-Protests-Umbrellas-July-28-Nile-Bowie-e1564371699234-1568x1047.jpeg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Defiant protesters in their thousands advance toward police on Des Voeux Road after being forced back by police, July 28, 2019. Photo: Nile Bowie.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Ipsos public affairs director Tan Hui Ching said in a briefing that the survey was conducted online between August 21 to 29 and its results reflect current business sentiments. Though protests over the past 14 weeks have dented Hong Kong’s reputation, the impact of those sentiments would not necessarily be long-term, she estimated.</p>
<p>Panelists who spoke after the survey’s release said that businesses in Hong Kong were still trying to formulate strategies and messaging to effectively address the city’s political crisis. Damien Ryan, Asia-Pacific chief executive officer for communications firm Teneo Strategy, said it is still premature for businesses to make relocation decisions.</p>
<p>“Has sentiment been impacted? Absolutely. No doubt about that. Are businesses reviewing plans and making those decisions to relocate? I think that&#8217;s a little bit early at the moment, simply because they&#8217;re in the middle of what is a fairly significant crisis that they&#8217;re trying to address,” he said.</p>
<p>The protests will likely run throughout 2019 and into 2020 with “no end date in sight,” Ryan said. Though authorities in Hong Kong earlier this month announced the formal withdrawal of the extradition bill that sparked mass protests in June, opposition to police violence and calls for universal suffrage have since been voiced as rally cries.</p>
<p>Panelists agreed that Hong Kong generally still remains safe and that protest activity has been relatively calm during weekdays as peaceful protests are held with smaller, violent protests staged during weekends. AmCham clients have thus been advised to fly and in out of Hong Kong between Monday and Thursday, the panelists said.</p>
<p>Companies in the city have maintained business as usual despite working in close proximity to where pitched weekend battles between black-clad protesters and riot police unfold.</p>
<figure id="attachment_357312" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-357312" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/hk3.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/hk3.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/hk3-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/hk3-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/hk3-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/hk3-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Protesters gather outside the police headquarters in Hong Kong on June 21, 2019. Photo: AFP/Hector Retamal</figcaption></figure>
<p>“Staff literally would come into work [on Monday morning] stepping over everything with their lattes and their analyst reports, just going about business,” Ryan recounted.</p>
<p>Anupama Puranik, managing director with consultancy firm Russell Reynolds Associates, said organizations with operations in Hong Kong will be reluctant to walk away and “throw the baby out with the bathwater” given that the city is still a gateway to China &#8211; a role that analysts acknowledge Singapore cannot easily supplant.</p>
<p>While the city-state is seen as a favored destination for its political stability and respect for the rule of law in business matters, Hong Kong’s economic and financial ties to the world’s second-largest economy undergird its status as Asia’s premier banking hub. Chinese banks continue to rely on the city to facilitate their overseas business.</p>
<p>Significantly, Hong Kong remains a top hub for offshore and onshore renminbi trading and settlements. Approximately 75% of all offshore payment flows of the currency pass through the territory, while nearly a quarter of all foreign exchange transactions in renminbi are made there.</p>
<p>Singapore, by contrast, processes 3.5% of international renminbi-denominated transactions.</p>
<p>Hong Kong’s highly developed financial system continues to serve as the entry point for international funds investing into Chinese domestic stock and bond markets. Hong Kong boasts an equity market capitalization of about US$4 trillion, far outweighing the $665 billion of Singapore’s stock market.</p>
<figure id="attachment_358613" style="width: 1592px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-358613" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Singapore-Merlion-Sunset-Cityscape-2018-Youtube-e1562034739692.jpg" alt="" width="1592" height="887" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Singapore-Merlion-Sunset-Cityscape-2018-Youtube-e1562034739692.jpg 1592w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Singapore-Merlion-Sunset-Cityscape-2018-Youtube-e1562034739692-768x428.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Singapore-Merlion-Sunset-Cityscape-2018-Youtube-e1562034739692-1568x874.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1592px) 100vw, 1592px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A cityscape view of Singapore from one of its trademark Merlion statues. Photo: YouTube</figcaption></figure>
<p>The Southeast Asian city-state has been careful not to create an impression that it is capitalizing on the tumult facing its rival business hub. Trade minister Chan Chun Sing warned earlier this month that prolonged disruption to Hong Kong&#8217;s stability will have a &#8220;negative spillover impact&#8221; on Singapore and the wider region.</p>
<p>&#8220;If the current situation in Hong Kong persists and adds to global economic uncertainty, investor confidence will likely be adversely affected,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This will, in turn, weigh on investments and economic activities in the region. With increased uncertainty, the impact on Singapore&#8217;s economy is likely to be larger.&#8221;</p>
<p>Puranik said most multinationals are still waiting and watching. She expects firms to stay put and wait out the turbulence unless the situation becomes “decisively worse” than it is at present. “If you start seeing things escalate, then that&#8217;s the time when the triggers might start getting pulled in terms of thinking about other destinations,” she said.</p>
<p>Job offers and positions in Hong Kong are “no longer as easy to sell” to foreign candidates as it was compared to six months ago, Puranik noted.</p>
<p>The biggest potential trigger for corporate relocations would be a decisive erosion of confidence in the “one country, two systems” principle, said Ryan. “If there was going to be greater evidence to say that no longer existed, that surely would be a consideration for companies in regard to location in Hong Kong.”</p>
<p>Allison Cheung, a tax partner for PwC Singapore, described the turbulence in Hong Kong as a phase that will eventually pass. “I think that the outlook is not very optimistic. But I think essentially it will come to an end, whether it’s a compromised position or whether it could be a potentially disastrous ending. I think it’s not the latter,” she said.</p>
By 2040 ‘water will be the biggest source of world tension’
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/demon-oil-on-the-defensive-over-climate-change/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/demon-oil-on-the-defensive-over-climate-change/<p>At the dawn of an era scientists have dubbed the Anthropocene, driven by human impact on the planet, the energy industry&#8217;s four-yearly gathering was forced onto the defensive on climate change.</p>
<p>With the burning of &#8220;demon&#8221; fossil fuels blamed for playing havoc in the &#8220;age of man,&#8221; many agreed that after decades of energy wars, future conflicts would be driven by competition for clean water as the glaciers recede and rivers dry up.</p>
<p>Asked what the biggest source of world tension would be in 2040, more than half the energy professionals and officials polled at this week&#8217;s World Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi nominated water scarcity.</p>
<p>&#8220;Ten years ago or 20 years ago oil would have been on the top of the list for sure,&#8221; said Adnan Shihab-Eldin of Kuwait, the former acting secretary general of OPEC.</p>
<p>&#8220;Now it’s not because of two factors: we have more resources throughout the world especially through technology … and the resources are more evenly distributed,&#8221; he told the World Energy Congress.</p>
<p>But like many other leaders and executives at the conference he insisted that given predicted global demand over coming decades, that could be reversed by an excessively rapid and unplanned switch to renewable sources of power.</p>
<p>&#8220;We all agree that what we want is a clean energy future. Getting to that clean energy future and the speed that we get there must be kept open,&#8221; he said, warning of &#8220;volatilities and crisis&#8221; if policy decisions were made in haste.</p>
<p>&#8220;It’s wrong in my view to set a policy that will impact for 40 years, saying for example not only that I don’t want nuclear for myself … but I don’t want nuclear for everyone else.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;So it’s important to keep all our options open, to invest in all them, depending on our local situation.&#8221;</p>
<h4>Last chance</h4>
<p>Gulf nations have invested tens of billions of dollars in clean energy projects, mainly in solar and nuclear. But critics say many are slow to get off the drawing board and that political will is lacking.</p>
<p>The addiction to oil is a powerful one, particularly when supplies remain abundant, and the switch to renewables is enormously costly.</p>
<p>But the Global Commission on Adaptation said Tuesday that countries rich and poor must invest now to protect against the effects of climate change or pay an even heavier price later.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are the last generation that can change the course of climate change, and we are the first generation that then has to live with the consequences,&#8221; said former UN chief Ban Ki-Moon, who chairs the commission.</p>
<p>Failure to curb the greenhouse gas emissions slow-roasting the planet has already unleashed a crescendo of deadly heat waves, water shortages and superstorms made more destructive by rising seas.</p>
<p>Earth&#8217;s average surface temperature has gone up 1C since the late 19th century, and is on track – at current rates of CO2 emissions – to warm another two or three degrees by the century&#8217;s end.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are the biggest influencing factor on nature these days,&#8221; Martin Frick, senior policy director at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said at a panel discussion in Abu Dhabi.</p>
<p>&#8220;As they say, with great power comes great responsibility.&#8221;</p>
<p>One of the leading lights at the World Energy Congress, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser, has spoken of a &#8220;crisis of perception&#8221; facing the industry and a growing risk the financial community will turn against fossil fuels.</p>
<p>During the week he led calls for an &#8220;orderly&#8221; shift and criticism of knee-jerk policies.</p>
<p>&#8220;All energy transitions – including this one – take decades, with many challenges along the road,&#8221; said the boss of the Saudi oil giant which is preparing for a stock market debut that will raise billions of dollars.</p>
<p>The UN&#8217;s Frick said that diplomacy on climate change was still working despite the difficulties.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is an urgent need for that,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The impacts are absolutely alarming, and no matter how much we negotiate, there is no negotiating with nature.&#8221;</p>
<p><em>AFP</em></p>
Manmohan Singh says main reasons for current slowdown were demonetization in 2016 and faulty implementation of goods and services tax
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/indias-ex-pm-warns-of-protracted-slowdown/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/indias-ex-pm-warns-of-protracted-slowdown/<p>India&#8217;s former prime minister Manmohan Singh warned that the country is currently going through a &#8220;dangerously protracted&#8221; slowdown that is &#8220;cyclical and structural&#8221; in nature, but lamented that the government was in a denial mode.</p>
<p>He called upon Narendra Modi&#8217;s Bharatiya Janata Party government to take urgent steps to fix the economy and come out &#8220;of its habit of headline management.&#8221;</p>
<p>In an interview given to a financial daily, <a href="https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/demonetisation-faulty-gst-implementation-behind-the-slowdown-says-manmohan-singh/article29394026.ece" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Hindu Business Line</a>, the former prime minister, who is also a well-known economist, said, &#8220;If this situation is not reversed, then the worst thing could happen to the employment situation. If income growth slows down month after month, quarter after quarter, then the scope of creating more jobs will seriously be affected.”</p>
<p>The country&#8217;s unemployment rate is already at a 45-year high of over 6%, according to the National Sample Survey Office’s job survey for 2017-18.</p>
<p>Manmohan Singh pointed out that in India 60% of the people work in agriculture and allied activities, and according to the latest figures the growth rate of agriculture is 2.7%, against the previous year’s more than 3.5%. “The real wage rate in the agriculture sector and the rural sector has been static in the last five years of the BJP government,” he observed.</p>
<p>Consumption, which was a reliable engine to propel economic growth, has slowed to an 18-month low. The real estate sector has not been doing well for some time now, in turn affecting allied industries such as bricks, steel and electricals, he added.</p>
<p>The former prime minister said, &#8220;In my estimate, it will take a few years to get out of this slowdown, provided the government acts sensibly now. We must not forget, though, that it was the blunder of demonetization, followed by the faulty implementation of goods and services tax, that triggered this slowdown.&#8221;</p>
<p>He said that corporate investments have fallen from 7.5% of gross domestic product to 2.7% of GDP in the year after demonetization. It used to be as high as 15% of GDP in 2010-11, he added.</p>
<p>Manmohan Singh wanted the government to address the economic slowdown in a transparent manner. Officials should listen to experts and all stakeholders with an open mind, and project serious intent to handle the crisis, he said.</p>
<p><strong>Remedial steps</strong></p>
<p>The former prime minister suggested steps to get out of the current slowdown.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Modi government must radically simplify and rationalize the goods and services tax regime, even if it means a loss of revenue in the short term. Secondly, the government must find innovative ways to kickstart rural consumption and revive agriculture,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>He called upon the government to tackle the lack of credit for capital creation. &#8220;It is not only the public sector banks but also the shadow bankers that are choked,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Key job-intensive sectors like textiles, auto, electronics, and affordable housing must be revived and assured priority lending,&#8221; especially for micro businesses and small and medium enterprises, he said.</p>
<p>The former prime minister said, &#8220;We need to find ways to address export markets that have opened up as a result of the trade wars between the United States and China. Lastly, there needs to be a credible roadmap for massive public infrastructure development, including through private investment. Some of these need structural reforms.&#8221;</p>
<p>He said if the government addresses the cyclical and structural problems of the economy, then India can get back on the high growth trajectory within the next three to four years.</p>
<p><strong>Government downplaying</strong></p>
<p>However, going by the recent controversial statements on the economy by the ministers in the Narendra Modi cabinet, the government is trying to downplay the issue.</p>
<p>Recently Finance Minister <a href="https://www.firstpost.com/business/nirmala-sitharaman-blames-millennial-mindset-for-car-sector-slowdown-but-whos-at-fault-for-drop-in-truck-sales-7320481.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nirmala Sitharaman </a>said the mindsets of millennials were adversely affecting the automobile industry as they prefer to use ride-hailing cabs rather than buy vehicles.</p>
<p>Ride-hailing cabs like Ola and Uber are present in only a handful of towns in India, and at best they may cause some dent in car sales. They hardly affect sales of two-wheelers and commercial vehicles. The minister&#8217;s remark was widely slammed and ridiculed on Twitter.</p>
<p><strong>Also Read: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/dr-manmohan-singh-worried-about-economic-slump/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr Manmohan Singh worried about economic slump</a></strong></p>
The daughter of the current king was charged in absentia for ordering the beating of a workman
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/sister-of-saudi-crown-prince-convicted-in-paris/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/sister-of-saudi-crown-prince-convicted-in-paris/<p>A French court has sentenced Saudi princess Hassa bint Salman to 10 months jail in absentia over complicity in the beating and imprisonment of a plumber at her Paris residence in September 2016.</p>
<p>The high-profile conviction came a year after Jamal Khashoggi – a Saudi insider turned critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.</p>
<p>The workman testified that Princess Hassa, the older sister of MBS, ordered her bodyguard to tie him up, threaten him at gunpoint, and kiss the princess&#8217; feet after he was seen taking pictures of the sink he was fixing.</p>
<p>The princess assumed he was photographing her reflection in the mirror, while the workman said he was simply taking pictures for the job.</p>
<p>The plumber, Ashraf Eid, says he was tied up by the bodyguard on the orders of Hassa and held for hours, during which time his phone was destroyed.</p>
<p>He testified that the princess shouted, &#8220;Kill him, the dog, he doesn&#8217;t deserve to live,&#8221; AFP said.</p>
<p>The jail sentence and fine of 10,000 euros handed to Hassa on Thursday was notably double the amount sought by prosecutors, according to the agency.</p>
<p>The princess has never returned to France for the court proceedings and has had an arrest warrant in her name since 2017.</p>
<p>The bodyguard Rani Saïdi, who appeared before the court, was given an eight-month suspended jail sentence and fined 5,000 euros.</p>
<h4>Khashoggi, 9/11</h4>
<p>The conviction of the high profile Saudi royal was handed down on the eve of the first anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi&#8217;s murder.</p>
<p>It also came as the FBI released the name of a Saudi official which lawyers for families of the 9/11 victims have been seeking for years in their bid to tie the Saudi government to the 2001 attacks. The ongoing legal battle is seen as the key barrier to the listing of state oil behemoth Saudi Aramco on the New York Stock Exchange.</p>
<p>Mohammed bin Salman, the heir to the throne set to rule Saudi Arabia for the coming decades, has made the privatization of Aramco the lynchpin of his economic vision for the country. He is seeking to rearrange it from oil dependency and raise the profile of the country&#8217;s sovereign wealth fund, the PIF.</p>
<p>In recent days, he has signaled he will not be deterred in his quest for the largest IPO in history, unceremoniously sidelining the country’s energy minister over the weekend and putting trusted allies in his place.</p>
<p>Yasir al-Rumayyan, the man at the helm of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, will now also head Saudi Aramco – the state oil giant whose partial privatization will benefit the fund.</p>
<p>The MBS vision has until now faced stumbling blocks amid repeated reckless foreign policy moves – from the disastrous war in Yemen, where his proxies are now in open warfare with those of his supposed ally, the United Arab Emirates, to the attempted kidnapping of the Lebanese premier, to the murder of Khashoggi.</p>
<p>The Washington Post columnist, who needed to obtain paperwork for a marriage, was lured into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey on 2 October 2018, never to emerge again.</p>
<p>The operation by a 15-man hit squad, flown in from Saudi Arabia to carry out what was later revealed to be a slow and horror-movie-style killing, caused outrage in Washington – where Khashoggi was often the only window that policymakers and journalists had into the kingdom.</p>
<p>It became clear in the hours and days following the disappearance of Khashoggi that the Saudi court had no air-tight explanation to give, or game plan for the fallout.</p>
<p>The crown prince was reportedly shocked by the blowback, thinking that the incident would pass without notice. The beating of a plumber in Paris would appear to follow in the same pattern of disregard for foreign laws and resort to violence against people deemed troublesome.</p>
<p>In the aftermath of the Khashoggi killing, King Salman made the point of taking his favorite son on a tour of the country to make clear his stature was undiminished even as US lawmakers called for the crown prince to face consequences.</p>
<p>The powerful prince this week hosted a delegation of American evangelical leaders, led by a dual US-Israeli citizen, in a fresh bid to keep his standing with the Trump administration.</p>
<p><!--more--></p>
<p><strong>Read</strong>: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2018/11/article/one-year-post-ritz-mbs-looks-to-ride-out-khashoggi-affair/">One year post-Ritz, MBS looks to ride out Khashoggi affair</a></p>
‘We never know when we’ll have an earthquake’ – Koizumi
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/japans-new-environment-chief-scrap-n-power/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/japans-new-environment-chief-scrap-n-power/<p>Japan&#8217;s newly appointed environment minister has said he wants to &#8220;scrap&#8221; nuclear power plants, warning of the need to avoid a repeat of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.</p>
<p>The comments from Shinjiro Koizumi, a rising political star and son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, are his first on the controversial issue since he was named in a cabinet reshuffle Wednesday.</p>
<p>Speaking late Wednesday night, he appeared to echo his father&#8217;s post-Fukushima anti-nuclear stance.</p>
<p>&#8220;I would like to think about how we can scrap it, not how to retain it,&#8221; he told reporters when asked about the government&#8217;s plans for nuclear power.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll be finished if we let [a nuclear accident] occur twice in one country. We never know when we&#8217;ll have an earthquake,&#8221; he added, without specifying further.</p>
<p>The comments are not expected to have any immediate impact on the government&#8217;s already-stated position of moving slowly away from dependence on nuclear energy, a task complicated by Japan&#8217;s considerable reliance on coal.</p>
<p>A darling of the Japanese media, Shinjiro Koizumi is the third-youngest minister appointed to the cabinet in Japan since the end of World War II.</p>
<p>Despite intense media spotlight, he has been coy about expressing his views on controversial issues, including the question of nuclear power.</p>
<p>His father is known for having shifted his own stance on nuclear power dramatically since resigning from politics, to a position of strong opposition.</p>
<p>The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said it wants to move away from nuclear energy, but it anticipates relying on the sector heavily for years to come, particularly as it works to meet its obligations under the Paris climate accord to reduce carbon emissions.</p>
<p>Its most recent plan envisages nuclear power supplying around 20-22 percent of energy needs for the country as late as 2030.</p>
<p><em>AFP</em></p>
The feel-good factor to celebrate the founding of the People’s Republic of China might not last long
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/dark-clouds-hover-behind-xis-big-parade/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/dark-clouds-hover-behind-xis-big-parade/<p class="p1">Nothing will be allowed to rain on President Xi Jinping’s parade.</p>
<p class="p1">As Beijing prepares for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/china-anniversary-fuel/beijing-clamps-down-on-fuel-firework-sales-ahead-of-chinas-70th-anniversary-idUSL3N2621TP">nearby polluting industries will be</a> shut down, self-service gas stations will close and fireworks will be banned.</p>
<p class="p1">Blue skies must compliment the sea of red for the Communist Party’s big bash.</p>
<p class="p1">Courtesy of US President Donald Trump’s “gesture of goodwill,” the <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/boltons-exit-raises-the-odds-of-us-china-trade-deal/">trade war will be put on hold</a> for the day after his decision to delay tariff hikes on Chinese imports worth US$250 billion until October 15.</p>
<p class="p1">Center-piece of the celebrations will be a vast military cavalcade winding through the Avenue of Eternal Peace. It will bristle with cutting-edge hardware such as the Dongfeng-41 intercontinental ballistic missile, which is known as the &#8220;big killer.”</p>
<p class="p1">With an operational range of 14,000 kilometers or 8,699 miles, it can carry 10 nuclear warheads and has raised concerns across the Asia-Pacific region along with the JL-2 submarine-launched ballistic missile.</p>
<p class="p1">Overhead, a flypast by <a href="https://www.janes.com/article/90225/image-confirms-j-20-fighter-assigned-to-plaaf-combat-unit-at-wuhu">screeching J-20 stealth fighters</a> will represent the airforce arm of the People’s Liberation Army.</p>
<p class="p1">“We will showcase some [of our most] advanced weapons for the first time during the parade,” General Cai Zhijun, a member of <a href="https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/central-beijing-locked-down-for-overnight-army-parade-rehearsal-11884242">the Chinese Army General Staff</a>, told a media briefing last month.</p>
<p class="p1">An understatement compared to an editorial in the jingoistic state-run Global Times. It donned its hard hat and beat the national drum <a href="http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1163111.shtml">in chest-thumping fashion</a>:</p>
<p class="p1" style="padding-left: 30px;">“In the face of global turbulence and the frequent emergencies of troublemakers both in the region around China and across the world, China&#8217;s capability of strategic deterrence is of great importance to itself and to the security of the whole region.</p>
<p class="p1" style="padding-left: 30px;">“China&#8217;s strong military strength is a visible fact in accordance with the country&#8217;s industrial and technological development. The world will gradually recognize and adapt to the development of China&#8217;s military power. It will be less sensitive to China&#8217;s future new weapons and more respectful of China&#8217;s national strength.”</p>
<p class="p1">You could practically hear the trumpets in the background and the distant thunder from the fallout of the trade conflict between Washington and Beijing.</p>
<h4>Cold War</h4>
<p class="p1">In the past week, there has at least been a thaw in the economic Cold War before key discussions in the US next month.</p>
<p class="p1">The spiraling row has acted <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/trade-war-horror-show-grips-china-and-the-us/">as a brake on China’s slowing economy</a>, highlighted by a data dump of depressing numbers during the last three months.</p>
<p class="p1">“At the heart of the dispute is the same collision of incompatible demands that have been evident since the end of April,” John Edwards, a senior fellow <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/us-china-now-have-three-week-window-avert-trade-talks-collapse">at the Lowy Institute in Australia</a>, said.</p>
<p class="p1">“The broad package of measures on intellectual property, investment restrictions, and so forth appears to have been agreed, though there is still a wide gap on quite how much more China is prepared to buy from the US. But while China insists the penalty tariffs lifted as part of the deal, the US wants them to remain in place until China demonstrates that it is implementing its commitments,” he added.</p>
<p class="p1">Still, even if a deal is eventually hammered out, it will probably be a short-term fix.</p>
<p class="p1">Already a vocal group in Washington see China as the greatest economic and military threat to Pax Americana in the past 70 years as it rapidly develops into a high-tech superpower.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oawRsvsGQSc" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p class="p1">Others are more circumspect, especially in the land of Xi.</p>
<p class="p1">“One thing happening is that the Americans have lost their patience,” Wang Jisi, the president of the <a href="https://www.chinausfocus.com/foreign-policy/we-are-not-a-threat">Institute of International and Strategic Studies</a> at Peking University in Beijing, told the foreign affairs website China-US Focus.</p>
<p class="p1">“When they thought about China 40 years ago, or 30 years ago, they thought that China would become more like the United States – achieving democratic, political pluralism, more diverse views, and a rising middle class that will change the political system of China,” he continued.</p>
<p class="p1">“Their hopes are dashed and shattered. Some of them are complaining about China going back to the old days. I’m not so pessimistic. I think there will be twists in history, ups and downs in the bilateral relationship, but we should remain optimistic that China is changing,” Wang added.</p>
<p class="p1">Many would question that last statement under Xi as he tightens his grip on the CCP, extends the Great Firewall by strangling online debate and preaches, at times, an old brand of nationalism with Chinese characteristics.</p>
<p class="p1">Increased military spending has also <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/05/article/can-the-pla-get-across-the-taiwan-strait/">transformed the balance of power in</a> the East and South China Seas as Beijing’s new naval carrier groups flex their muscles under an umbrella of stealth fighters.</p>
<h4>Economic Goliath</h4>
<p class="p1">All this has become possible through the country’s unprecedented rise as an economic Goliath.</p>
<p class="p1">“After Xi announced the ‘China Dream of Great National Rejuvenation,’ the Communist Party of China identified three important stages of development under three different leaderships: the Chinese people &#8216;stood up&#8217; under Mao Zedong; ‘became rich’ under Deng Xiaoping, and are ‘becoming powerful’ under Xi. Since Mao’s and Deng’s eras are long gone, naturally, Xi is the focus of this propaganda,” Palden Sonam, of the China Research Programme, wrote in a commentary <a href="http://www.ipcs.org/comm_select.php?articleNo=5531">for the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies</a>, an Indian think tank.</p>
<p class="p1">“With his rise as the CCP’s core leader, Xi has embraced an authoritarian form of nationalism based on his strongman leadership in the quest to transform China into a ‘Great Power,’ and has positioned nationalism as a route to realizing the ‘China Dream’,” he added.</p>
<p class="p1">In Washington, this is seen as a nightmare scenario among a group of senior figures with many calling for a tougher approach when dealing with Beijing. As the chasm of criticism widens, rhetoric and reason blur the lines of engagement.</p>
<p class="p1">Song Wei, a research fellow <a href="http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1149570.shtml">at the National Academy of Development and Strategy</a> from the School of International Studies at Renmin University, cast a spotlight on the conundrum.</p>
<p class="p1">“There are differences between Chinese and American culture, but the two complement rather than oppose each other. For example, China may need more individualism to boost its society’s vitality, while the US needs more collectivism to eliminate increasingly tense disputes among different social class and ethnic groups,” Song said. “Labeling China-US competition as ‘a clash of civilizations’ will only stir up anti-China sentiment. It cannot help the two countries resolve their disputes.”</p>
<p class="p1">Yet there are other forces at play in Beijing’s backyard. The rise of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong has illustrated fears that the <a href="https://theconversation.com/hong-kong-why-the-one-country-two-systems-model-is-on-its-last-legs-118960">“one country, two systems”</a> model is nothing more than a straitjacket, designed to suppress basic freedoms of expression.</p>
<p class="p1">What was agreed before the handover in 1997 with the United Kingdom has left a disillusioned generation demanding political change. Many are distant relatives of mainland Chinese that fled across the border to escape from the rule of the Communist Party.</p>
<p class="p1">“There is no doubt about Beijing’s agenda. In the near term, it wants the protests halted and the protesters quashed,” Ryan Hass, of the John L. Thornton China Center, and Susan A. Thornton, of the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale University, wrote in <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2019/07/30/on-hong-kong-the-us-must-find-its-voice/">an article for the Brookings Institution</a>, a Washington-based think tank.</p>
<p class="p1">“While Beijing would prefer Hong Kong authorities to do what’s necessary to restore order, they also have removed any pretense of subtlety about their willingness to take matters into their own hands, should they deem it necessary. Over the medium term, Beijing would like to tighten control over Hong Kong and prevent it from becoming enveloped in instability again,” they added.</p>
<p class="p1">And that is the dark cloud hovering over Xi’s big parade.</p>
Election campaign promise targets nonresidents who buy homes but don’t live there
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/canadian-pm-vows-tax-on-foreign-property-speculators/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/canadian-pm-vows-tax-on-foreign-property-speculators/<p>In an attempt to curb foreign speculation, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed to tax non-residents who buy Canadian properties but don&#8217;t live in them, as he campaigned Thursday for reelection.</p>
<p>At a stop in British Columbia, which has seen double-digit annual rises in housing prices over the past decade, the Liberal leader said most young people &#8220;can&#8217;t even imagine buying a home right now,&#8221; which he blamed partly on overseas purchases.</p>
<p>&#8220;Owning a house should be a realistic life goal,&#8221; he told reporters. &#8220;It&#8217;s where you set down roots, where you raise a family, where you grow old.</p>
<p>&#8220;But young people hoping to buy their first home, just like their parents did a generation ago, are facing a tough housing market.&#8221;</p>
<p>In addition to expanding first-time buyer incentives, Trudeau said if elected to a second term he would introduce a one-percent annual tax on all residential properties owned by non-resident, non-Canadians.</p>
<p>The tax would be applied on top of similar measures already introduced in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia to cool red-hot real estate markets in Toronto and Vancouver, where average home prices top Can$1 million (US$750,000).</p>
<p>Trudeau and others blamed these soaring prices &#8220;in part on housing speculation by foreign owners.&#8221; Record-low interest rates and a housing supply shortage have also contributed to the increases.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re sending a message that Canada is not a place for those who wish to speculate in the housing market,&#8221; Trudeau said.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re doing this because we want our markets to stay stable and affordable.&#8221;</p>
<p>Trudeau faces a tough general election on October 21, dogged by an ethics scandal that has taken the shine off his golden boy image and left him vulnerable to a sharp challenge from Conservative Andrew Scheer.</p>
<p><em>AFP</em></p>
Ambulance paramedics delayed an hour before getting in to treat injured people, three of them badly hurt
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hk-police-denied-medics-entry-into-subway/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hk-police-denied-medics-entry-into-subway/<p>The Fire Services Department said on Thursday police repeatedly told medics there were no casualties in a subway station, causing an hour delay before ambulance personnel could treat injured people on August 31.</p>
<p>The department held a 2.5-hour press conference to refuted again rumors that up to three people were beaten to death during a police operation to arrest protesters in Prince Edward MTR station on that night two weeks ago.</p>
<p>But they revealed that police officers twice refused to allow paramedics to enter the station to treat the injured.</p>
<p>At 11.30pm on August 31, a lone medic, down on the platform to assess the situation, called for backup as there were several injured people, three of them with serious injuries.</p>
<p>The lone medic was assisted by a group of firefighters, some of whom had basic first aid training.</p>
<p>Tsang Man-ha, deputy chief ambulance officer said at 11.46pm, the lone medic called a batch of ambulance personnel waiting outside the station to come down to help. But they were unable to enter because the entrance was locked.</p>
<p>Video showed that unidentified riot police refused to let the team of medics enter, saying “no one is injured on the platform”.</p>
<p>The team went to another entrance and the police officer stationed there also refused to let them enter, citing the same reason.</p>
<p>But at 12.30am – an hour later, a total of 19 ambulance staff were able to get in the station after a police officer got permission from his commander to let them in.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2zxTty40u1w?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>John Tse Chun-chung, chief superintendent of the police public relations branch, admitted the incident at the daily press conference, saying it occurred because of a communication error. He said the officer might have meant “there was nobody injured within his view”. He said the officer did not obstruct the rescue maliciously.</p>
<p>Tse said after the officer communicated with colleagues on the platform, he arranged for ambulance personnel to go down to treat the injured.</p>
<p>Deputy chief fire officer Derek Chan said the delay was not desirable from a perspective of attempting to rescue injured people. He said there were communication problems with police on the site that night.</p>
<p>To avoid such an incident happening again, the fire department will liaise with police to work out a better way to collaborate, Chan said.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379677" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-379677" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/fireteam-PC.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/fireteam-PC.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/fireteam-PC-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/fireteam-PC-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/fireteam-PC-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/fireteam-PC-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Tsang Man-ha, deputy chief ambulance officer, left, and Derek Chan, the deputy chief fire officer. Photo: Facebook, Fire Services Dept</figcaption></figure>
<p>The conference held by the Fire Services Department came after a joint-departmental conference with the fire services team, police, the Hospital Authority and MTR Corp on Tuesday, which sought to dismiss rumors that there were fatalities on the platform.</p>
<p>On August 31, media was kept out of the station by the police when arrests took place, and the number of injured people reported inside the station was revised down. All these incidents added to speculation that the authorities had something to hide.</p>
<p>However, the public did not seem to believe official statements despite repeated clarification by government departments and people kept placing flowers or other symbols of mourning on the gates at the MTR station.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a pro-democracy lawmaker on Wednesday revealed an <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClaudiaMoManChing/photos/pcb.2965729753444354/2965726290111367/?type=3&amp;theater" target="_blank" rel="noopener">internal document from the fire services department</a> allegedly showed a discrepancy in the number of injured people on August 31.</p>
<p>Claudia Mo cited the documents, which showed the number of injured people inside the station was cut from 10 to seven. She alleged that the three reportedly suffering serious injuries had “disappeared”.</p>
<p>But Tsang said on Thursday that the sole medic did not bring a “triage card” when he went into the station and it was possible that he count the injured people repeatedly.</p>
<p>Mo asked the department to reveal its records of the operation, while other lawmakers called on the railway operator to disclose full surveillance camera footage from the subway station to ease public concern.</p>
<p>The MTR Corp only disclosed some screenshots from the footage on Tuesday.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
Trump tweets inspire Taliban reply in bitter exchange
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/afghan-election-back-in-spotlight/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/afghan-election-back-in-spotlight/<p>Elections in Afghanistan – and in the United States – are in the news from and about Kabul.</p>
<p>For months now a question mark has hung over the September 28 Afghan vote, in which President Ashraf Ghani will face off against his own Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, as America prioritized securing a deal with the insurgents that would allow it to begin exiting its longest war.</p>
<p>With the agreement seemingly imminent – and the US-backed government in Kabul undermined as rumors swirled of an interim regime – many Afghans and observers had expected the poll to be canceled outright.</p>
<p>Even the more-than-a-dozen candidates – who include former warlords, ex-spies and onetime members of the country&#8217;s communist regime – did not appear to believe it would take place, with little in the way of campaigning.</p>
<p>As the incumbent, Ghani is presumed to be the favorite, though with the lack of campaigning or credible polling observers cautioned against making any predictions.</p>
<p>But with Trump&#8217;s bombshell announcement Saturday that the US-Taliban talks were off, the situation changed.</p>
<p>The Taliban quickly made it known that the only alternative was more fighting – and with renewed focus on the election, which they have always opposed, the polls are a prime target, as they seek to delegitimize any resulting government by minimizing turnout.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Taliban will do everything possible to disrupt the election,&#8221;Haroun Mir, an independent analyst based in Kabul, told AFP. &#8220;We expect more violence,&#8221;</p>
<p>Abdul Waheed Wafa, the executive director of the Afghanistan Center at Kabul University, described a mood of confusion and fear.</p>
<p>&#8220;Nobody at the moment is ready, not the people of Afghanistan, not the election commission and not even the government,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>The presidential vote, Afghanistan&#8217;s fourth since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, has already been delayed twice this year.</p>
<p>Turnout could be &#8220;very, very low,&#8221; Wafa added, citing fear of violence and a loss of hope among voters following widespread fraud allegations during the 2014 election, for which there was no credible turnout estimate.</p>
<p>Both Ghani and former anti-Soviet fighter Abdullah claimed they had won that contest, with the US stepping in to broker a fragile power-sharing agreement.</p>
<h4>No incentive</h4>
<p>Last October&#8217;s legislative elections were bloodied by a series of deadly attacks as the Taliban called on citizens to stay away.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are so scared &#8230; we are wary, we are concerned and we don&#8217;t know what kind of election we will have,&#8221; Wafa said.</p>
<p>With US-Taliban talks suddenly scuppered by Trump&#8217;s tweets, the insurgents are now expected to try to deprive Ghani of legitimacy – which some already feel is in short supply after he was sidelined by Washington in its Taliban talks.</p>
<p>Ghani and his officials had complained loudly over being kept out. They see the election as a way to reaffirm their right to negotiate for Afghans.</p>
<p>&#8220;Any future path towards peace has to be based on will of the Afghan people&#8230; and it should be owned and led by the Afghan government,&#8221; said government spokesman Sediq Sediqqi.</p>
<p>A key element of the US-Taliban talks had been securing a guarantee from the insurgents that they will hold a direct dialogue with Kabul, deemed crucial to ending the nearly 18-year conflict.</p>
<p>They have historically refused to speak to a government they deem a &#8220;puppet&#8221; of the US.</p>
<p>But if the government – which has also been blighted by corruption and disunity – does win a strong mandate, then &#8220;the Taliban will have no alternative but to deal with it,&#8221; argues the analyst Mir.</p>
<p>The question is whether the elections can be seen as fair and representative, say experts from the Afghanistan Analysts Network.</p>
<p>AAN analyst Thomas Ruttig told AFP that with the election so near it was &#8220;difficult to speculate &#8230; there is very little time left for campaigning&#8221;.</p>
<p>The Taliban, he said, &#8220;have enough power to disrupt the vote&#8221;.</p>
<p>If they do, as ever in Afghanistan, it is civilians who will pay a disproportionate price.</p>
<p>&#8220;Stop breaking more hearts!&#8221; Facebook user Omid Sharifi wrote this week, adding that there are no winners in the escalating violence.</p>
<h4>Meanwhile in Houston</h4>
<p>Afghanistan came up briefly in a Houston debate among ten 2020 Democratic presidential contenders Thursday night.</p>
<p>&#8220;Bring our troops home,&#8221; said Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and a veteran of military service in Afghanistan. &#8220;Today you could be 18 years old – old enough to serve – and not have been alive at the time of 9/11.&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not necessary to have an open commitment of ground troops to keep terrorists from using Afghanistan&#8217;s soil to attack the US, Buttigieg said. &#8220;Tell me what winning looks like,&#8221; he added, saying that the problems of the country &#8220;cannot be solved by the military.&#8221;</p>
<p>Former Vice President Joe Biden seemed to agree. Afghanistan &#8220;will not be put together&#8221; with military action, he said. Instead of keeping ground troops in the country indefinitely, he said, the US should prevail upon Pakistan to permit operation of a US airlift operation to deal with emergencies.</p>
<h4>War of words</h4>
<p>Afghans are bracing for fresh violence after Donald Trump abruptly scuttled US-Taliban talks, yanking this month&#8217;s presidential election back into the spotlight as the militants look to keep voters from the polls with bloody attacks.</p>
<p>The war of words between the Taliban and Trump escalated Thursday as the Afghan insurgents warned that the US leader had failed to grasp &#8220;what type of nation he is dealing with&#8221;.</p>
<p>The latest salvo in the bitter exchange comes a day after Trump boasted during a 9/11 anniversary ceremony that US forces have &#8220;hit our enemy harder than they have ever been hit before and that will continue&#8221; just days after peace talks between the two sides collapsed.</p>
<p>&#8220;Trump (@realDonaldTrump) must tread carefully,&#8221; tweeted Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.</p>
<p>&#8220;He has yet to grasp the type of nation he is dealing with. His advisers must make him understand &amp; introduce the Graveyard of Empires #Afghanistan to him.&#8221;</p>
<p>Until this weekend there had been steadily mounting expectations of a deal that would see the US drawdown troop levels in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>In return, the Taliban would offer security guarantees to keep extremist groups out.</p>
<p>But then on Saturday, Trump revealed on Twitter that he had cancelled an unprecedented meeting between the Taliban and himself at Camp David and later said the talks with the militants were &#8220;dead&#8221;.</p>
<p>The Taliban spokesman&#8217;s tweet comes just hours after the group launched a suicide attack that killed at least four soldiers near Kabul, as the insurgents ramp up attacks on security forces.</p>
<p>The incident occurred at a special forces base in Char Asiab district just south of the capital Kabul where an insurgent driving a car packed with explosives detonated near the facility&#8217;s entrance.</p>
<p>&#8220;Four soldiers were killed, and three injured,&#8221; said interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi.</p>
<p>Afghan special forces &#8212; numbering around 17,000 represent a small fraction of the 300,000 strong Afghan armed forces but have been carrying out the bulk of offensive operations across Afghanistan in recent years.</p>
<p>As fears of increased violence soared with presidential elections approaching later this month, Afghan troops and Taliban insurgents have been engaged in heavy exchanges across Afghanistan, with several militant-controlled districts in the far north falling to government forces.</p>
<p>However, the Taliban continue to strike Afghan installations at will after the militants issued their own vow earlier in the week to continue fighting and make the US regret walking away from talks.</p>
<p><em>With reporting by AFP</em></p>
Mnuchin, Trump also comment as outlook brightens a bit
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/houston-debate-features-sound-bites-on-trade-war/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/houston-debate-features-sound-bites-on-trade-war/<p>Contenders for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination, debating among themselves Thursday night in Houston, attacked current President Donald Trump&#8217;s trade war as poorly thought out.</p>
<p>With time for little more than sound bites Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota got off the biggest zinger, accusing Trump of &#8220;treating our small farmers and workers like poker chips at one of his bankrupt casinos.&#8221; As the soybeans pile up in the US Midwest, the US should &#8220;go back to the negotiating table,&#8221; she said.</p>
<p>&#8220;American leadership is needed more than ever,&#8221; said Mayor Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana. &#8221; There&#8217;s a lack of strategy.&#8221;</p>
<p>Trump was not alone in getting stamped with the villain label.</p>
<p>&#8220;Trade policy in America has been broken for decades,&#8221; asserted Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Big companies move manufacturing abroad to &#8220;save a nickel.&#8221;</p>
<p>Warren said if elected she&#8217;ll reserve places &#8220;at the table&#8221; for unions, small farmers, environmentalists and human rights advocates.</p>
<p>She noted that the US has leverage on trade, because &#8220;everyone wants access to the American market.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;I am not a protectionist Democrat,&#8221; said Senator Kamala Harris of California. &#8220;We need to hold China accountable&#8221; – but at the same time partner with China on climate.</p>
<h4>Mnuchin comments</h4>
<p>US trade negotiators want to make &#8220;meaningful progress&#8221; in upcoming talks with China, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said earlier on Thursday, one day after conciliatory gestures by both sides boosted hopes of an eventual resolution.</p>
<p>Mnuchin said on CNBC he is &#8220;cautiously optimistic&#8221; about chances for a deal to resolve the conflict, while President Donald Trump hinted at a watering down of his position with the possibility of an interim deal.</p>
<p>Washington and Beijing will first hold talks at the deputy level to ensure senior officials who meet later can advance towards an agreement.</p>
<p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t want a trip that&#8217;s just a series of discussions. We want to make meaningful progress,&#8221; Mnuchin said.</p>
<p>However, he again warned that Trump will only accept a good deal, and is willing to raise tariffs if necessary.</p>
<p>Trump told reporters he preferred to seal a complete deal, but that he might be willing to consider an interim agreement.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d rather get the whole deal done,&#8221; he said, but noted analysts have been discussing the possibility of an interim deal &#8220;meaning we&#8217;ll do pieces of it, the easy ones first.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no easy or hard, there&#8217;s a deal or there&#8217;s not a deal. It&#8217;s something we would consider I guess,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>There have been positive signs this week in the trade conflict, now entering its second year, as Trump agreed to Beijing&#8217;s request to delay one round of tariff increases on $250 billion worth of goods for two weeks, until October 15, after China agreed to spare some US products from its retaliation.</p>
<p>China added Thursday that it was &#8220;making enquiries&#8221; about buying American farm products including big-ticket items like pork and soybeans, not on its previous list of spared goods.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is expected that China will be buying large amounts of our agricultural products!&#8221; Trump tweeted early Thursday.</p>
<p>American farmers have borne the brunt of the US-China trade spat, especially after US soy exports collapsed last year, virtually wiping out foreign markets farmers had spent years cultivating.</p>
<p>Trump has previously accused Beijing of backsliding on promises to increase purchases of US farm goods and has offered billions in aid to farms badly damaged in the trade war.</p>
<h4>&#8216;Cautiously optimistic&#8217;</h4>
<p>Senior US and Chinese officials are due to hold preliminary talks later this month, in preparation for meetings in early October led by Mnuchin and US Trade Representative Bob Lighthizer.</p>
<p>Mnuchin said &#8220;we clearly didn&#8217;t make the progress we wanted to&#8221; at the last meeting in Shanghai in late July, but he added: &#8220;I&#8217;m cautiously optimistic. I take the Chinese in good faith that they want to come here with a deal now.&#8221;</p>
<p>But he said Trump &#8220;is prepared to keep these tariffs in place. He&#8217;s prepared to raise tariffs if we need to raise tariffs.&#8221;</p>
<p>Trump&#8217;s hardline trade advisor Peter Navarro said on CNN Thursday that the US is focused on addressing &#8220;seven acts of economic aggression&#8221; by China including &#8220;cyber-hacking of our computers to steal our business secrets, intellectual property theft&#8221; and &#8220;manipulation of the currency.&#8221;</p>
<p>However Mnuchin said Hong Kong&#8217;s pro-democracy movement &#8220;is definitely not on the table,&#8221; as &#8220;that is an issue for the secretary of state to deal with.&#8221;</p>
<p>Millions of people have demonstrated over the last 14 weeks in the biggest challenge to China&#8217;s rule of the financial hub since its handover from Britain in 1997.</p>
<p>Hong Kong&#8217;s pro-Beijing Chief Executive Carrie Lam warned the United States on Tuesday not to &#8220;interfere&#8221; with her government&#8217;s response.</p>
<p>In the Houston debate, Buttigieg singled out Hong Kong as a situation where &#8220;American leadership is needed more than ever.&#8221;</p>
<h4>&#8216;Eating the tariffs&#8217;</h4>
<p>Reducing America&#8217;s soaring trade deficit with China has long been a principal aim in Trump&#8217;s trade battle with Beijing, but so far it has not led to a reduction in the trade imbalance. In 2018, the US goods trade deficit with China was $419.52 billion.</p>
<p>Trump has long viewed deficits as a defeat for the United States, arguing that they amount to stealing – a position rejected by most economists.</p>
<p>Meanwhile the US president maintains that the protracted trade war is damaging China more than the United States, and China is &#8220;eating the tariffs.&#8221;</p>
<p>The US Treasury has taken in $66 billion in customs duties in the 11 months through August, 73 percent more than in the same period of the prior fiscal year – tariffs paid by American importers.</p>
<p>Experts have warned there are signs the US is also feeling the pinch, with job creation slowing across major industries last month, and manufacturing seeing a decided slowdown.</p>
<h4>NAFTA replacement</h4>
<p>Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont noted in the Houston debate that he had opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement while Joe Biden, the former vice president who is leading the Democratic pack, favored it.</p>
<p>Earlier in the day, the speaker of the US House of Representatives had said that much work remains before Democrats will be ready to vote on a replacement pact.</p>
<p>&#8220;It has to be greatly improved in terms of enforcement,&#8221; Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, told reporters. &#8220;We think we&#8217;re making progress.&#8221;</p>
<p>Negotiations with President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration to improve guarantees for labor protections for Mexican workers – a key demand of US labor unions – are continuing but there is as yet no text to vote on, she said.</p>
<p><em>-With reporting by AFP-</em></p>
The 44-year-old former football star and Chinese actress-singer were filming a commercial for The Londoner Macao hotel
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/beckham-and-angelababy-tie-the-knot-for-show/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/beckham-and-angelababy-tie-the-knot-for-show/<p>Former British soccer star David Beckham and Chinese model, actress and singer Angelababy appeared to tie the knot in London this week but his fashion designer wife, Victoria Beckham, needn’t worry as it was all for show.</p>
<p>Specifically, the pair were filming a commercial for British-inspired luxury hotel, The Londoner Macao, Channel News Asia (CNA) reported. Beckham is the global brand ambassador for The Venetian Macao and its owner, Sands China Limited, a subsidiary of Las Vegas Sands Corp.</p>
<p>The 44-year-old former football star looked dapper in a black tuxedo and black bow tie, while 30-year-old Angelababy was dressed in a strapless wedding gown, with her hair styled in a bun.</p>
<p>They were spotted waiting beside a red Double Decker bus with ‘Invited Guests Only&#8217; written on the destination plate. They were then showered with confetti as extras playing guests congratulated the couple.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379215" style="width: 670px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-379215" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-10-at-5.09.13-PM.png" alt="" width="670" height="393" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Angelababy and David Beckham shoot a faux marriage TV commercial for The Londoner Macao. Photo: Wire</figcaption></figure>
<p>Beckham had earlier shared a video of himself and Angelababy on Instagram during the filming of the ad where they were seen eating the quintessential English fast food, fish and chips.</p>
<p>In the video, Beckham explained to his co-star that he grew up eating the meal, usually on Fridays.</p>
<p>He said: “It&#8217;s just a tradition. We would get it wrapped in newspaper, an old newspaper, and then you&#8217;d get the chips and the fish wrapped in that.”</p>
<p>Angelababy quipped: &#8220;So you like newspaper a lot?&#8221;</p>
<p>Beckham then struggled to pronounce “fish and chips” in Mandarin</p>
Departure of US security hawk lowers the risk of war and has changed the dynamic in energy markets
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/asian-economies-may-gain-most-from-bolton-effect/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/asian-economies-may-gain-most-from-bolton-effect/<p>Turns out, John Bolton is good for something: brightening the outlook for Asia’s inflation and growth.</p>
<p>Oil prices <a href="https://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/Middle-East/Trumps-Softer-Line-On-Iran-Could-Tank-Oil-Prices.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">fell $1 per barrel</a> within hours of news US President Donald Trump either demanded or accepted the resignation of his uber-hawkish national security adviser. Bolton had been angling behind the scenes for 17 months to invade every place from Iran to Venezuela. He did his best to break up Trump’s “love” affair with Kim Jong-un.</p>
<p>Bolton’s sudden departure has already changed the dynamics in energy markets. Punters spent much of 2018 – Bolton started in April of last year – pricing in military misadventures. In June, for example, bombers were actually en route to Iran – until Trump thought better of it and called off the airstrike.</p>
<p>For now, sliding <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/future/crude%20oil%20-%20electronic" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">oil prices</a> is the best news Asia’s trade-reliant economies have received in those 17 months. On top of Trump’s trade war, oil’s 20% surge this year has been an intensifying headwind from Japan to Singapore. It’s been the added hit China didn’t need as Trump’s tariffs send growth to 27-year lows.</p>
<p>For nations facing dual budget and current account deficits, higher energy prices only add for financial strains. The “Bolton effect” is a load off for governments from India to Indonesia to the Philippines. They face their fair share of inflation spikes over the last year. They all have something else in common: epic infrastructure booms necessitating increased energy imports.</p>
<p>Those with healthier balance-of-payments positions – Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan – have been less vulnerable to this year’s market chaos. Here, too, less worrying about Bolton-instigated clashes in the <a href="https://beta.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/iran-says-us-mustabandon-war-mongers-following-boltons-dismissal/2019/09/11/0d9eec36-d476-11e9-9610-fb56c5522e1c_story.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Strait of Hormuz</a>, South America, the Korean peninsula or elsewhere are a plus for top-line Asian growth. It’s one less major risk factor for executives planning investments and compensation for 2020.</p>
<h4>Relief factor</h4>
<p>There are other factors that could work in Asia’s favor. The relief-factor in Washington might offset Saudi Arabia’s efforts to hike prices ahead of the initial public offering of Aramco, the world’s most profitable oil company. So might a slowing US. Earlier this week, the US Energy Information Administration cut its outlook for <a href="https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/report/global_oil.php" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">oil consumption</a>. It now expects global demand of about 900,000 barrels per day this year, which could be the weakest period since 2011.</p>
<p>Yet the Bolton news “tapped the brakes on prices” in ways sure to cheer investors and governments alike, says Ben Geman of Washington-based Axios news and data site.</p>
<p>There’s still a question of who Trump hires to replace Bolton, says Cliff Kupchan of Eurasia Group. “But,” he adds, “several key policy issues will probably take [a] less hardline. Regarding Iran, Bolton has been ‘Dr No’ when it comes to talks with Iran.</p>
<p>Trump, by contrast, says he hopes to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Bolton’s departure, meantime, means that even as Pyongyang expands its nuclear program, the odds of “<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/09/politics/trump-fire-fury-improvise-north-korea/index.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">fire and fury</a>,” as Trump once put it, are declining.</p>
<p>“Bolton never bought the idea of talks,” Kupchan says. “The US is now even more likely to accept Kim’s demand for a phased approach to talks, and formal negotiations seem poised to restart. A breakthrough deal involving Kim agreeing to abandon his nuclear arsenal, however, remains very unlikely.”</p>
<p>Any U-turn in Afghanistan policies could, at least in the short run, reduce the uncertainty factor. Getting a key architect of the 2003 Iraq invasion girding for any number of clashes out of the West Wing is <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/12/trump-says-the-ecb-is-succeeding-at-depreciating-the-euro-against-the-dollar-while-the-fed-sits.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">dollar-positive</a>.</p>
<p>Yet Bolton is just a symptom of the Trumpian chaos roiling markets. As analysts at ClearView Energy Partners argue: &#8220;We would caution against the a priori conclusion that a post-Bolton administration might materially pivot from those positions.”</p>
<p>Who knows, Trump might replace Bolton with an even bigger hawk.</p>
<h4>Good for Manila, Jakarta</h4>
<p>Lower oil prices, though, would act like a stealth tax cut for households and smaller businesses. They offer Rodrigo Duterte an insurance policy against runaway inflation in the Philippines. They will aid Indonesia’s <a href="https://www.indonesia-investments.com/finance/macroeconomic-indicators/inflation-in-indonesia/item254" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Joko Widodo</a> in taming local bond markets and boosting investor confidence.</p>
<p>For Japan’s Shinzo Abe and South Korea’s Moon Jae-in, calmer energy makers are always a plus for their resource-poor economies. And in a year in which so little is going China’s way, lower import prices give Xi Jinping’s a bit more latitude to let the yuan slide.</p>
<p>Even on Trump’s island of misfit toys, Bolton was a particular standout for the way he made the world a riskier place. His departure is the best news Asia’s economies have received in quite some time.</p>
Commercial concerns an alternative explanation if US oil giant divests from $10 bn Blue Whale gas project in the South China Sea
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/chinese-pressure-may-drive-exxonmobil-from-vietnam/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/chinese-pressure-may-drive-exxonmobil-from-vietnam/<p>Market speculation is rife that American oil and gas giant ExxonMobil is poised to withdraw from the US$10 billion Blue Whale energy project covering Vietnam’s largest gas field in the South China Sea.</p>
<p>This week, respected independent blogger Huy Duc claimed that ExxonMobil had informed the Vietnamese government on August 28 that it plans to sell its 64% stake in the Blue Whale project, known locally as Ca Voi Xanh, which is expected to start extracting gas by 2023.</p>
<p>Days earlier, oil market analyst Tim Daiss wrote that the general consensus among Vietnamese energy professionals “is that Beijing could very well be preparing to challenge or at least apply pressure” to the Blue Whale project. The article was headlined, “Will Beijing Kick ExxonMobil Out Of The South China Sea?”</p>
<p>ExxonMobil has not commented publicly on the fast-building speculation. But if the US oil giant is indeed looking to cut and run from the Blue Whale project, questions will arise about whether it was a commercial decision or motivated by Chinese pressure.</p>
<p>But the American firm&#8217;s possible departure would mark the fourth contract in as many years canceled by a foreign energy firm exploring under a Hanoi-given concession in Vietnam’s claimed areas of the South China Sea.</p>
<figure id="attachment_368540" style="width: 1400px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-368540" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Vietnam-South-China-Sea-Vanguard-Bank-Map-Wikimedia-Commons-e1565076209217.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="920" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Vietnam-South-China-Sea-Vanguard-Bank-Map-Wikimedia-Commons-e1565076209217.jpg 1400w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Vietnam-South-China-Sea-Vanguard-Bank-Map-Wikimedia-Commons-e1565076209217-768x505.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Vanguard Bank area circled in red. Image: Wikimedia Commons</figcaption></figure>
<p>China, which claims nearly 90% of the contested sea through its controversial nine-dash line map, has pressured Vietnam to stop exploring for oil and gas in cooperation with foreign firms in disputed maritime areas. Those contested claims have come to a confrontational head in recent weeks as Chinese and Vietnamese vessels face off over the energy-rich Vanguard Bank.</p>
<p>A Vietnamese-Russian joint venture, led by Moscow’s Rosneft, is exploring for oil in the area.</p>
<p>In 2017 and 2018 Hanoi canceled oil and gas exploration projects held with foreign firms, including Spain’s Repsol, because of Beijing’s pressure and reputed threats to resort to violence in the Spratly Islands.</p>
<p>Deploying its maritime militia and weaponized vessels into Vietnamese-claimed waters is just one way Beijing is trying to pressure Hanoi into a corner, analysts say.</p>
<p>As part of a Code of Conduct for the South China Sea under negotiation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Beijing wants the bloc’s members to agree to a clause that economic activity in the maritime area “shall not be conducted in cooperation with companies from countries outside the region.”</p>
<p>As such, if ASEAN accedes to the code, Vietnamese firms will no longer be able to partner with Russian or American companies to explore for oil and gas in the sea. Vietnam assumes ASEAN’s rotational chairmanship next year and could aim to cut the clause from the code, some say.</p>
<p>Rex Tillerson, the former chief executive officer of ExxonMobil, served as US Secretary of State between February 2017 and March 2018. Yet if ExxonMobil plans to retreat from the Blue Whale field in response to Chinese pressure, US government officials are not acknowledging that they know anything about it.</p>
<p>On August 22, US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus specifically stated that “US companies are world leaders in the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbon resources, including offshore and in the South China Sea&#8230;. The United States therefore strongly opposes any efforts by China to threaten or coerce partner countries into withholding cooperation with non-Chinese firms, or otherwise harassing their cooperative activities,” she said in a public statement.</p>
<p>As the rumors fly fast and furious, a far less sensational explanation than Chinese pressure would be that ExxonMobil is having second thoughts about the commercial viability of the project, at a time it is cutting costs and disposing of assets worldwide.</p>
<p>ExxonMobil recently announced that it aims to divest some US$15 billion worth of assets. Last week, Reuters reported that it wants to recoup $4 billion by divesting from projects in Norway. In mid-August, it was reported that US oil giant will also sell its stakes in British North Sea projects.</p>
<p>There could be good commercial reasons for ExxonMobil to depart the Blue Whale project. Some analysts suggest that the gas field’s reserves are especially high in carbon dioxide, limiting the possible uses for its extracted fuel and making it less environmentally friendly.</p>
<p>The financial problems of its local state-run partner, PetroVietnam (PVN), could also be a factor. Given PVN’s depleted coffers, it would unlikely be able to purchase ExxonMobil’s share in the venture if the American energy giant pulled out.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s also the possibility that ExxonMobil does not plan to exit, but rather is using the threat to pressure the Vietnamese government to implement and alter policies and hasten approvals for key parts of the project.</p>
<figure id="attachment_316729" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-316729" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/US-Vietnam-Donald-Trump-Nguyen-Phu-Trong-February-27-2019-e1551256872257.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/US-Vietnam-Donald-Trump-Nguyen-Phu-Trong-February-27-2019-e1551256872257.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/US-Vietnam-Donald-Trump-Nguyen-Phu-Trong-February-27-2019-e1551256872257-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/US-Vietnam-Donald-Trump-Nguyen-Phu-Trong-February-27-2019-e1551256872257-1568x1047.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">US President Donald Trump with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Phu Trong at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi on February 27, 2019. Photo: AFP via Vietnam News Agency</figcaption></figure>
<p>The project’s status should become clearer when Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam’s president and Communist Party chief, travels to Washington for a state visit later this year, most likely in October. There are already suggestions that senior officials from PVN and its upstream arm, the PetroVietnam Exploration Production Corporation, will accompany Trong to the US.</p>
<p>“This sounds to me more like a commercial issue (by ExxonMobil) driven either from head office (sell assets) or from the regional office (get a better price for the gas) – not by political pressure from Beijing,” Bill Hayton, an associate fellow in the Asia-Pacific Program at Chatham House in London, tweeted on September 10.</p>
<p>Yet the geopolitical intrigue cannot be totally dismissed.</p>
<p>Carlyle Thayer, a Vietnam expert and emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia, predicted on August 17 that if Beijing doesn’t think “progress” is being made in harassing Vietnam’s oil exploration with Rosneft near the Vanguard Bank, “it could stage provocations in other oil blocks such as ExxonMobil’s Blue Whale that is adjacent to the nine-dash line.”</p>
<p>“China will not move to dramatically escalate tensions so much as to apply continual pressure on Hanoi, Manila and Kuala Lumpur to demonstrate that there is little these three countries can do to resist Chinese intrusions,” Thayer wrote last month, in reference to two other Southeast Asian rival claimants in the waters. “China seeks to demonstrate that no country can rely on the United States or the international community to come to their assistance,” he wrote.</p>
<p>Bennett Murray, Hanoi bureau chief for the Deutsche Presse-Agentur, wrote in August that for Vietnam “linking its petroleum industry to great power politics may be its best chance of hanging on to some of its drilling fields within the nine-dash line.”</p>
<p>He specifically noted the importance for Hanoi of maintaining ExxonMobil’s interest in the Blue Whale field, which he noted is “sandwiched precariously off the coast of Danang, between China’s proclaimed continental shelf boundary and one of the nine dashes.”</p>
<figure id="attachment_324989" style="width: 1448px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-324989" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Vietnam-PetroVietnam-Oil-Drilling-Facebook-e1553067901602.jpg" alt="" width="1448" height="844" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Vietnam-PetroVietnam-Oil-Drilling-Facebook-e1553067901602.jpg 1448w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Vietnam-PetroVietnam-Oil-Drilling-Facebook-e1553067901602-768x448.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1448px) 100vw, 1448px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">PetroVietnam workers drilling for oil in a file photo. Photo: Facebook</figcaption></figure>
<p>If, indeed, ExxonMobil is looking to cut and run from the multi-billion dollar project – even for financial, not geopolitical reasons – it will represent a blow to US-Vietnam relations at a crucial geo-strategic juncture. Now more than ever, Hanoi is looking for commitments from Washington that it will take its side in any armed confrontation with China in the contested sea.</p>
<p>Washington, however, is sending mixed signals. US-Vietnam relations have grown even stronger under US President Donald Trump, deepening ties built by his predecessor Barack Obama’s rapprochement with Hanoi. Trump has twice visited Vietnam and has seldom said anything critical about Southeast Asia’s worst human rights offender.</p>
<p>But the US leader is still apparently annoyed by Vietnam’s bulging trade surplus with the US, a friction point agitated by reports Hanoi is allowing trade war-sanctioned China-made goods to be re-labeled and exported as Vietnamese-made goods. In response, Trump referred to the nation in June as “almost the single worst abuser of everybody” in a press interview.</p>
<p>Still, Trump’s government has responded resolutely to China’s recent moves near the Vanguard Bank, with State Department spokeswoman Ortagus admonishing China for taking “a series of aggressive steps to interfere with [Vietnam’s] longstanding, well-established economic activities.”</p>
<p>Russia’s involvement at Vanguard Bank has complicated the picture. China’s intimidation near the feature was intended to pressure Vietnam to cancel its ongoing joint-exploration with Rosneft, the second-largest state-controlled company in Russia.</p>
<p>The Russian government owns a 50% stake, while the second and third-largest stakeholders are BP and Qatari QH Oil. Russian giant Gazprom and wholly state-owned Zarubezhneft are also involved in energy projects with Vietnam in its area of the South China Sea.</p>
<p>There are market rumors that ExxonMobil could seek to sell its shares in the Blue Whale project to Rosneft.</p>
<p>Russian President Vladimir Putin has been mainly agnostic about the South China Sea disputes, but this could change as Moscow’s energy interests also come under Beijing’s pressure in the maritime area.</p>
<p>“Where [Spain’s] Repsol, a private firm from a minor world power, held little geopolitical clout, Russia can be expected to play old-fashioned great-power politics to defend cash flows to the state,” wrote Murray. “Although Russia may not officially take Vietnam’s side in the dispute, its companies are the only ones currently producing at the country’s behest within the nine-dash line.&#8221;</p>
<p>Thayer, the Vietnam expert, says that when Chinese and Russian foreign ministers Wang Yi and Sergei Lavrov met in Bangkok for a regional summit in August, Yi asked that Rosneft stop its activities with Vietnam at the Vanguard Bank, a request that Lavrov reportedly declined diplomatically.</p>
Aside from naval missions, LPD’s can also be used for civilian purposes, like disaster relief and humanitarian rescues
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/thai-navy-inks-deal-for-lpd-warship-from-china/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/thai-navy-inks-deal-for-lpd-warship-from-china/<p>China and Thailand have signed a deal that will see a Chinese shipbuilding company build a Type 071E landing platform dock (LPD) warship for the Thai navy, a move which shows deepened arms trade cooperation between the two countries, a Chinese military expert said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>China and Thailand signed the agreement in Beijing on Monday, with the general manager of the China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited (CSSC), Yang Jincheng, and the commander-in-chief of the Royal Thai Navy, Luechai Ruddit, participating, according to a statement CSSC released on Tuesday, Global Times reported.</p>
<p>This also marks the first time China has exported an LPD, the statement said.</p>
<p>The statement did not provide further details, including the ship&#8217;s price or when the ship will be delivered.</p>
<p>The Type 071 LPD is a 20,000 ton-class warship that can carry combat personnel and equipment, including air-cushioned landing craft (LCAC), amphibious assault vehicles, tanks and helicopters.</p>
<p>It is part of the main battle equipment being used by China&#8217;s People&#8217;s Liberation Army Navy.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379575" style="width: 631px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-379575 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-12-at-2.13.21-PM.png" alt="" width="631" height="217" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Thailand has also ordered Yuan class S26T diesel submarines from China. Handout.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Thailand could use the warship to conduct naval transport missions, boosting the country&#8217;s troop deployment capability in the high seas, Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military analyst, told the Global Times on Wednesday.</p>
<p>It can also be used for civilian purposes, like disaster relief and humanitarian rescue missions, because as a large naval platform, it can carry relief goods and get victims out of disaster areas, Wei said.</p>
<p>The variant of the Type 071 for Thailand is called the Type 071E, with the E possibly meaning &#8220;export.&#8221; It could be a customized version based on the needs of the Thai navy, Wei said, noting that it will likely have no significant changes compared to the domestically commissioned ones in China.</p>
<p>Thailand operates other Chinese weapons like the VT4 tanks made by the China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO).</p>
<p>Wei said that arms trade cooperation between the two countries is getting deeper, and Thailand could purchase even more Chinese weapons like LCAC, amphibious assault vehicles, and helicopters that could fit the Type 071E.</p>
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<p>The Thai Navy presently has Yuan Class S26T diesel submarines under construction in China.</p>
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Armed with lasers, hypersonic missiles and swarms of drones, the UK’s Tempest fighter jet could well be the future
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<p class="element element-paragraph">Italy is expected to join a nascent British effort to build a sixth-generation fighter jet, expanding that program’s membership club to three partners after Sweden signed up earlier this summer, Defense News reported.</p>
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<p class="element element-paragraph">Officials at the DSEI defense trade show were still unsure as of Tuesday afternoon in what form the government-to-government agreement would be announced, saying that Italy’s and Britain’s turbulent political situations made for little certainty. It appeared that a written statement by the respective defense ministries would be published by Wednesday morning, to be accompanied by a formal event that day.</p>
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<p class="element element-paragraph">The UK subsidiary of Italy’s Leonardo has been part of the program since it announced its participation at the Farnborough Airshow last year, working on new new ideas for sensors and avionics. It remains to be seen if involving the whole of Italy’s flagship contractor will alter the playing field on the industrial side, the report said.</p>
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<p class="element element-paragraph">Tempest is meant to take flight sometime around 2040, replacing the Eurofighter Typhoon for the British Royal Air Force. The promise of a sixth-generation capability lies in the integration of manned and unmanned planes carrying weapons and sensors, tied together by a complex data network and cloud-like information infrastructure.</p>
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<p class="element element-paragraph">Information on the scope of Italy’s involvement in the program was eagerly awaited at DSEI, with some sources suggesting Rome’s participation could go beyond what Sweden and its go-to contractor Saab signed up for in July.</p>
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<p class="element element-paragraph">During a news conference in July, Saab CEO Håkan Buskhe described the prospect of jointly developing Britain’s Tempest platform as only one of several possible outcomes of the tie-up inked by the two countries’ defense ministers that month.</p>
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<p class="element element-paragraph">The near-term objective, he said, is for Saab to participate in cutting-edge research that could help boost the performance of its latest Gripen E fighter. The jet is “75 percent software,” he explained, which presents the possibility of new capabilities without major hardware changes.</p>
<p>The involvement of Italy in Tempest solidifies what is becoming a major race in Europe to develop a next-generation warplane for the continent. France, Germany and Spain are pursuing a separate effort, the Future Combat Air System, with Airbus and Dassault in the industry lead.</p>
<p>According to Wired, the full-scale mock-up of the sleek aircraft is Lockheed F-22 Raptor-esque, with twin engines and two vertical stabilizers.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379573" style="width: 689px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-379573 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-12-at-10.39.52-AM.png" alt="" width="689" height="368" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A mock-up of the UK&#8217;s Tempest was on display at the recent DSEI defense trade show. Wire photo.</figcaption></figure>
<p>The military called the jet a sixth-generation fighter, which would put the Brits ahead of today’s fifth-gen crop: the US’s F-35 and F-22, Russia’s Sukhoi Su-57, and China’s J-20.</p>
<p>The ministry has devoted US$2.6 billion to developing the Tempest concept through 2025, and it will decide then whether to roll out a final aircraft by 2035. The new jet can be flown by a pilot in the air or operated as a drone, officials said.</p>
<p>One big hurdle for the Brit-led effort: building highly complex stealth technology, on which the US usually leads. An effective stealth program needs deliberately chosen materials and manufacturing processes, and impeccable design. A slight miss in any of these can become a literal dead giveaway.</p>
<p>The Tempest team will also want to take a close look at the American-born F-35’s combat and sensor systems.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Rolls-Royce boasts that the Tempest’s stealthily recessed adaptive-cycle turbofans will be made of lightweight composite materials, feature superior thermal management and digital maintenance controls, and generate large quantities of electricity through magnets in the turbine cores, The National Interest reported.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Surplus electricity may be of particular interest for powering directed energy weapons, which could range from lasers to microwaves.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">A Meteor long-range air-to-air missiles and a SPEAR-3 cruise missile were displayed next to the mock-up, and compatibility with next-generation&#8221;Deep Strike missiles&#8221; is also listed.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">The presentation also lists hypersonic missiles and swarms of deadly drones as offensive capabilities. To ease the workload on the pilot, the aircraft would utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning to optimize the drone’s behavior.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Like the F-35, the Tempest would employ a diverse array of passive and active sensors, and a Tempest pilot may able to gaze “through” his or her own plane using a helmet-mounted device, which may also replace conventional cockpit display panels.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“Cooperative Engagement” technology would also allow a Tempest to fuse sensor data with friendly aircraft, ships or ground forces using “reconfigurable” communication systems and data links. This could allow one platform to hand off sensor data to another platform, which could then launch missiles without exposing itself.</p>
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Researchers say the impact of the giant asteroid had triggered massive tsunamis and led to wildfires that were thousands of miles away
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/dinosaur-killer-more-powerful-than-10-billion-wwii-atomic-bombs/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/dinosaur-killer-more-powerful-than-10-billion-wwii-atomic-bombs/<p>The asteroid that wiped away dinosaurs from the Earth is estimated to have been equivalent to 10 billion atomic bombs that were used in World War II. The impact of the giant asteroid had triggered massive tsunamis and led to wildfires that were thousands of miles away, according to research led by The University of Texas at Austin.</p>
<p>According to the findings of the research, the asteroid blasted so much sulphur into the Earth’s atmosphere that it led to blocking of the sun rays which ultimately caused global cooling that led to the extinction of dinosaurs, The Indian Express reported.</p>
<p>Scientists have found hard evidence in the hundreds of feet of rocks that filled the impact crater within the first 24 hours after impact, according to the research which got <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/09/04/1909479116" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published</a> in the journal <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>.</p>
<p>The evidence includes bits of charcoal, jumbles of rock brought in by the tsunami’s backflow and noticeably absent sulphur. All of these are a part of the rock record which provides the most details into the catastrophic aftermath that ended the dinosaurs, according to Sean Gulick, a research professor at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) at Jackson School of Geosciences.</p>
<p>Gulick had led the study and co-led the 2016 International Ocean Discovery Program scientific drilling mission which retrieved the rocks from the impact site offshore of the Yucatan Peninsula, the report said.</p>
<p>The research is built on the previous work that was co-led and led by the Jackson School which described how the crater had formed and how the life recovered quickly at the site of the impact. Over two dozen international scientists contributed to the study.</p>
<p>Most of the material which filled the crater within a few hours of the impact was there at the site of the impact or got swept in by seawater pouring into the crater from the nearby Gulf of Mexico. According to the researchers, 425 feet of material was deposited in a day, which is the highest ever found in the geographical record.</p>
<p>Gulick explained it as a short-lived inferno at a regional level, followed by a long period of global cooling. “We fried them and then we froze them,” Gulick said in a statement. “Not all the dinosaurs died that day, but many dinosaurs did.”</p>
<p>The researchers found charcoal and a chemical biomarker associated with soil fungi just above layers of sand that showed signs of being deposited by resurging waters, the report said.</p>
<p>According to the researchers, the area surrounding the impact crater is full of sulfur-rich rocks. However, there was no sulfur in the core. This, according to the researchers, supports a theory that the asteroid impact had vaporized the sulphur-bearing minerals which were present at the impact site and released it into the planet’s atmosphere.</p>
<p>The scientists estimated that at least 325 billion metric tons would have been released in the atmosphere by the impact of the asteroid. This would have reflected the sunlight away from the planet and caused global cooling.</p>
<p>Scientists concluded that though the impact of the asteroid created mass destruction at the regional level, it was the global change of climate which led to the mass extinction of dinosaurs and most other living species on Earth during that time.</p>
<p>“The real killer has got to be atmospheric,” Gulick said in the statement. “The only way you get a global mass extinction like this is an atmospheric effect.”</p>
Vapor’s all-electric drones were on display at the 2019 Defence and Security Equipment International exposition in London
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/blood-drones-may-one-day-be-ready-for-combat/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/blood-drones-may-one-day-be-ready-for-combat/<p>You&#8217;re pinned down somewhere in Afghanistan, stuck in a fierce firefight with insurgents, and one of your men is down and badly in need of medical help.</p>
<p>You can&#8217;t call in a helicopter because you don&#8217;t have control of the LZ, but you can save your buddy&#8217;s life &#8230; if only you had some blood plasma.</p>
<p>Within minutes, a drone sweeps down from above, at high speed, landing right next to your position — and a life is saved, because of a &#8220;blood drop.&#8221;</p>
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<p class="element element-paragraph">Transporting blood by drone matches the strengths and constraints of small uncrewed aerial systems. It’s one reason that, in May 2018, DIUx put out a request for a drone capable of delivering 5 pounds of blood over 60 miles.</p>
<p class="element element-paragraph">That already exists in the civilian and aid world, from drone delivery companies like Zipline, and it is coming close to a reality for military models, too.</p>
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<p class="element element-paragraph">Vapor all-electric drones, designed by Pulse Aerospace before it was acquired by Aerovironment, were on display at the 2019 Defence and Security Equipment International exposition in London, C4ISR.net reported.</p>
<p class="element element-paragraph">The Vapor series comes in 35- and 55-pound models, with similar airframes and characteristics across the brand. For the Vapor 35 this includes a 5-pound payload capacity, which can go up to 10 pounds in the Vapor 55.</p>
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<p class="element element-paragraph">While the payload of the Vapor 35 is likely going to be used up with sensors, the Vapor 55’s greater payload capacity, reports Jane&#8217;s 360, is useful for “troop-in-contact resupply, blood drops, and the like.”</p>
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<p class="element element-paragraph">Medical researchers at Johns Hopkins determined in 2015 that small vials of blood could be transported as safely by drone as by car. A 2016 demonstration with a hexacopter showed that blood could be transported from ship to shore by drone, a valuable tool for both relief work and possibly contested beach landings, the report said.</p>
<p class="element element-paragraph">Later research showed that not just blood samples but whole bags of blood for transfusion could be carried by small flying robot, meeting not just testing needs but promising immediate delivery to a human in need.</p>
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<p class="element element-paragraph">The range of the miniature helicopter-bodied Aerovironment Vapor drones is not the full 60 miles that DIUx was looking for, though at 35 miles it is more than halfway there.</p>
<p class="element element-paragraph">The all-electric operation likely means the drones are quieter than internal combustion-powered alternatives, which could prove useful if the drones need to fly relatively unnoticed to get their blood or other vital payload where it needs to be, the report said.</p>
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<p class="element element-paragraph">War is, fundamentally, a bloody business. What is novel, for now, is blood resupply by robot, but with a greater proliferation of platforms capable of blood delivery, it may become as routine in the 2020s as surveillance by drone was for the 2010s.</p>
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Offering to share the company’s 5G tech opens the door to a trade deal between the US and China
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/huawei-calls-the-us-intel-communitys-bluff/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/huawei-calls-the-us-intel-communitys-bluff/<p>The American intelligence community concocted a story about Huawei’s plans to steal the world’s data through control of 5G broadband, in order to cover up its failure to anticipate the most important new development in telecommunications since Marconi invented the wireless – quantum communications.</p>
<p>This hack-proof technology pioneered by the Chinese and likely to be embedded in the new fifth-generation networks will drastically curtail the eavesdropping capabilities of America’s spy agencies. I broke the story in a <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/07/article/us-china-tech-war-and-the-us-intelligence-community/">July 7 exclusive</a> in Asia Times. America’s spies hijacked the Trump Administration’s trade agenda and turned into a global campaign against Huawei. This has been a humiliating failure.</p>
<p>Now Huawei has called the American intelligence community’s bluff. Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei offered to license his company’s technology to the West and allow Western companies to take it apart, re-write the source code, and otherwise purge it of any possible trace of Chinese hacking, in an interview with <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/07/article/us-china-tech-war-and-the-us-intelligence-community/">The Economist</a>:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">It is this 5G technology – central to Huawei’s future revenue growth – that Mr Ren said he was ready to share, in a two-hour interview with The Economist on September 10th. For a one-time fee, a transaction would give the buyer perpetual access to Huawei’s existing 5G patents, licences, code, technical blueprints and production know-how. The acquirer could modify the source code, meaning that neither Huawei nor the Chinese government would have even hypothetical control of any telecoms infrastructure built using equipment produced by the new company. Huawei would likewise be free to develop its technology in whatever direction it pleases.</p>
<p>China never planned to steal everyone else’s data. On the contrary, China offered technology that would stop the United States from stealing everyone else’s data, a critical setback to a US intelligence community that spends most of its $80 billion annual budget on signals intelligence (SIGINT).</p>
<p>That opens the door to a straightforward trade deal between the US and China, under which China will buy a lot more US agricultural produce and energy (as President Trump tweeted today), and China will agree to some mechanism to allay American concerns about theft of intellectual property. President Trump signaled the likelihood of such a deal by postponing some new tariffs to Oct. 15 from an early-scheduled Oct. 15, in deference to the anniversary of China’s Communist Revolution of 1949.</p>
<p>A trade deal was imminent in December 2018 when Xi Jinping and Trump dined during the Buenos Aires Group of 24 summit. It collapsed when the arrest of Huawei’s CFO (and Ren’s daughter) at the Vancouver airport shifted the agenda to national security issues.</p>
<p>The way back to a trade deal lay over the job of National Security Adviser John Bolton, who represented the intelligence community’s position inside the Trump cabinet. As I reported here <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/boltons-exit-raises-the-odds-of-us-china-trade-deal/">Sept. 10</a>, firing Bolton was a signal that Trump had grown weary of the spooks’ encroachment on his trade agenda. I do not think it a coincidence that Ren’s offer was given to the Economist the same day that Bolton was fired.</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal reported this morning, “China is looking to narrow the scope of its negotiations with the U.S. to only trade matters, putting thornier national-security issues on a separate track in a bid to break deadlocked talks with the U.S. Chinese officials are hoping that such an approach would help both sides resolve some immediate issues and offer a path out of the current impasse, according to people familiar with the plan.”</p>
<p>In fact, the Trump Administration took the initiative to sideline the national security issues by removing Ambassador Bolton. President Trump’s first concern is his re-election, which is endangered by the manufacturing recession that began in the first quarter of 2019, triggered by the contraction of world trade due to the tariff war.</p>
<p>Chinese scientists demonstrated quantum communications in a video call with Vienna in 2017. The technology uses the entanglement of atoms at a distance to create a communications signal. Any attempt to hack the system will destroy the quantum state that powers the communication, and destroy the signal. It is the first form of cryptography that is theoretically impossible to foil. As I reported, several major telecom and tech companies including Japan’s Toshiba and South Korea’s SK Telecom are in a race to embed quantum communications in the new 5G networks.</p>
<p>America’s spies failed to anticipate this sea-change in technology, although China openly tested a quantum communications satellite in <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/china-s-quantum-satellite-clears-major-hurdle-on-way-to-ultrasecure-communications-1.22142">June 2017</a>. The failed attempt to derail Huawei was a last-ditch effort to slow down the Chinese while the spies figured out what to do next. One solution might be to cut $60 billion or so out of the US intelligence budget and divert it to a crash R&amp;D program to bring America up to speed in quantum communications and fifth-generation broadband, technologies in which China presently has the lead.</p>
Given increasing uncertainties in the global market, the newly wealthy make savings as one way to fend off risks
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/where-do-chinas-newly-rich-invest-their-money/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/where-do-chinas-newly-rich-invest-their-money/<p>China&#8217;s newly-wealthy people have after-tax monthly income of about 18,000 yuan (US$2,529.72), a new survey shows, and 94% of them have properties, The Paper reported.</p>
<p>They prefer traditional investments, such as bank deposits and real estate investment, according to the China Rising Affluent Financial Well-Being Index, released by the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance and global financial service provider Charles Schwab.</p>
<p>Their average after-tax monthly income is 18,281 yuan nationwide, with 19,667 yuan in first-tier cities, 16,960 yuan in second-tier cities and 15,722 yuan in third-tier cities.</p>
<p>The findings are based on a survey of 3,800 respondents with annual income of 125,000 yuan — 1 million yuan and investable assets of no more than 7 million yuan. These respondents came from China&#8217;s four first-tier cities, six second-tier cities and five third-tier cities.</p>
<p>Given increasing uncertainties in the global market, newly wealthy people make savings as one way to fend off risks, in a bid to help them maintain their confidence, the report said.</p>
<p>Nearly 90% of respondents said they regularly make deposits, and 55% of income will be used for savings and investment.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, 94% of respondents said they have properties. The figure is 93% in first-tier cities, 95% in second-tier cities and 98% in third-tier cities.</p>
<p>This year, the proportion of property investment also rose to 33% from 20% in 2017. About 45% said they plan to increase their property investment.</p>
<p>Furthermore, newly wealthy people in first-tier cities pay more attention to investing for their children&#8217;s education, even those with lower income.</p>
<p>The survey showed that in first- and second-tier cities, children&#8217;s education is the most important financial goal, while in third-tier cities, it ranked fourth.</p>
<p>Newly wealthy people think education decides a family&#8217;s future financial condition. Some people improved their social status through education. Now, they hope their children will maintain or enhance their social status through high-level education.</p>
Thai PM Prayut Chan-ocha leads an unwieldy 18-party government but the powerful elite interests behind it will make him hard to topple
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/prayuts-wobbly-coalition-stronger-than-it-looks/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/prayuts-wobbly-coalition-stronger-than-it-looks/<p>Make no mistake about it, Thailand has now firmly returned to noisy, raucous and hotly contested democracy after five years of coup-installed and heavy-handed military rule.</p>
<p>Politics are again being fought out in an elected parliament, not commanded as military decrees or battled in the streets. Political scores are being aired and contested in the open, not through late-night police state knocks on the door or military-enforced “attitude adjustment” sessions.</p>
<p>Yes, the military is still lingering in the political wings and, yes, its ex-members are still in top government positions, with coup-maker Prayut Chan-ocha retaining the premiership. And, yes, the “democratic” opposition is rightly carping of foul play at the March 24 elections, in the vote-counting and post-election coalition building.</p>
<p>Significantly, though, the coup-ousted Peua Thai party agreed to play by the junta’s tilted election rules and has abided by the result, filling its role in the parliamentary opposition despite winning the most seats at the March polls.</p>
<p>The surprise rise of Future Forward, an upstart anti-military party that has the kingdom’s conservative elite in conniptions, was proof positive that the election had a large measure of democratic legitimacy, an assessment shared by many Western embassies and international agencies.</p>
<p>Even more significantly, Thailand’s newly crowned king is asserting his royal prerogatives in ways seldom seen under his father’s long reign, a re-centralization of monarchical power some feel is gravitating towards more overtly palace-guided or influenced politics.</p>
<figure id="attachment_325513" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-325513" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Thailand-Prayut-Chan-ocha-Elections-March-12-2019-e1553149931100.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Thailand-Prayut-Chan-ocha-Elections-March-12-2019-e1553149931100.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Thailand-Prayut-Chan-ocha-Elections-March-12-2019-e1553149931100-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Thailand-Prayut-Chan-ocha-Elections-March-12-2019-e1553149931100-1568x1047.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha drives a tricycle on the campaign trail in Nakhon Ratchasima ahead of the March 24 general election. Photo: AFP/Handout/Royal Thai Government</figcaption></figure>
<p>But while Thailand’s new elected government may look wobbly on the outside, with some predicting it won’t last a calendar year, it is actually undergirded by strong pillars of support &#8211; arguably the pillars that matter most, namely big business, a conservative elite which entrenched its power during five years of military rule, and the monarchy.</p>
<p>This is the government that those power centers wanted and got, and as such will be harder to knock from power than it may appear, particularly now that Prayut has democratic legitimacy given his Palang Pracharat Party (PPRP) won the most votes (8.4 million to Peua Thai’s 7.9 million) at the polls.</p>
<p>Thailand is thus set for more rambunctious, less assertive and slower moving government, seen at the outset in the long-winding debate on whether Prayut actually fully recited his oath of office at an audience with King Maha Vajiralongorn, as legally required.</p>
<p>The Constitutional Court has declined to rule on the kerfuffle, though it was significant at the uproar’s height that Vajiralongkorn issued a note of support to Prayut, effectively defusing the opposition’s bid to play a royal card to challenge his government’s legitimacy.</p>
<p>There are no doubt plenty more political landmines ahead, as always in Thai politics, but for the sake of short and mid-term stability Prayut’s government is likely more stable than many analysts recognize.</p>
<p>His 18-party coalition’s razor-slim and recently narrowed majority suggests it could be toppled at the first chance the opposition gets to stage a no-confidence debate, expected in early 2020. Indeed, Peua Thai and Future Forward have made it crystal clear that that is their strategy.</p>
<p>Yet sources close to both PPRP and Peua Thai acknowledge the ruling coalition’s back-room operators are negotiating to lure, or buy, 15 or so MPs to its side when the no-confidence debate is finally called, likely giving Prayut the numbers to see down the challenge and firm up his position.</p>
<figure id="attachment_325525" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-325525" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Thailand-Elections-Billboards-February-4-2019-e1553150860895.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Thailand-Elections-Billboards-February-4-2019-e1553150860895.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Thailand-Elections-Billboards-February-4-2019-e1553150860895-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Thailand-Elections-Billboards-February-4-2019-e1553150860895-1568x1047.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Political party campaign billboards line a Bangkok street ahead of March 24 elections in Thailand. Photo: AFP Forum via Bangkok Post/Wichan Charoenkiatpakul</figcaption></figure>
<p>No-confidence debates can only be held once a year, so a first failed attempt would conceivably buy Prayut at least another year in office.</p>
<p>One question is how soon does Peua Thai really want another costly election, particularly at a time when the party, despite winning the most seats at the March 24 polls, looks increasingly rudderless and divided, with a fading Thaksin brand that has lost much of its “new generation” luster as the self-exiled ex-leader approaches 70 years of age.</p>
<p>The military’s long-game strategy of erasing his and his Shinawatra clan’s presence and legacy has to some measure worked. There are concurrent indications Thaksin may also be playing a longer, more conciliatory game in hopes of receiving a royal pardon, seen in the recent unplugging of his son’s oppositional Voice TV news station and appointment of a political kitten, not bulldog, as the party’s new leader.</p>
<p>The real “new generation” party, Future Forward, is clearly the one to watch, not least because the military, conservative elite and perhaps even segments of the royal institution appear to have the upstart party and its top youthful leaders in their sights.</p>
<p>They have reason to fear, to be sure. One recent poll shows that if new elections were held now that Future Forward would win in a romp, with 81% of under 20’s and 67% of 20-30’s favoring the party, significantly even before it has had a chance to prove itself in the parliamentary opposition.</p>
<p>Future Forward, on the offensive this week with claims that at least 54 people, mostly Malay Muslims, have died in military custody since 2014, is at the same time on a back foot. The party and its members now face some 23 accusations and cases, certain of which could lead to its dissolution.</p>
<figure id="attachment_321171" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-321171" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Thailand-Thanathorn-Juangroongruangkit-Future-Forward--e1552291957343.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Thailand-Thanathorn-Juangroongruangkit-Future-Forward--e1552291957343.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Thailand-Thanathorn-Juangroongruangkit-Future-Forward--e1552291957343-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Thailand-Thanathorn-Juangroongruangkit-Future-Forward--e1552291957343-1568x1047.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Thai Future Forward party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit (C) campaigns in Bangkok&#8217;s Khlong Toei neighborhood on March 3, 2019, ahead of the March 24 general election. Photo: AFP/Aidan Jones</figcaption></figure>
<p>None of the charges look particularly legitimate and any move to dissolve the party on flimsy legal grounds would badly undermine the democratic legitimacy Prayut and his PPRP are now basking in. At least one Western embassy has made that point clearly in private to the government.</p>
<p>Future Forward has overreached early and fallen into certain well-laid political traps, with its PPRP and other conservative elite detractors persistently painting the party as anti-monarchy, always volatile allegations in Thailand’s legal context and particularly under the new firm reign.</p>
<p>But it doesn’t mean the powers-that-be won’t miscalculate in a bid to short-circuit Future Forward’s momentum and move to dissolve the party, or at least unseat its charismatic founder and leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, on bogus politicized charges.</p>
<p>One case pending in court claims his party is part of the 18th century Illuminati secret society, implausibly because if the political party’s symbol is inverted it forms a triangle. The same charge sheet claims Future Forward’s push for Thailand to sign the Rome Statute represents a threat to the monarchy.</p>
<p>Another case concerns Thanathorn’s alleged media share-holdings while running for office, a no-no under local law, but an ill-defined charge that would ensnare several other ruling politicians with previous private business interests if applied equally.</p>
<p>Thanathorn, 40, has already suggested in press interviews his party’s dissolution would be just cause for his youthful supporters to take to the streets, setting up a potential clash of what would, rightly or wrongly, be readily portrayed as a clash of democratic and military forces.</p>
<p>It’s the political dynamic to watch moving forward, much more so than the conservative elite’s age-old tussle with Thaksin.</p>
<p>Other potential sources of instability could come from one scandal or another, or more likely a combination of many. Political parties in PPRP’s wide umbrella coalition are no doubt hungry to feed their patronage networks after five years on the outside under direct military rule.</p>
<p>That was plain for all to see in the hard-fought negotiations for lucrative ministerial portfolios, a bitter tussle that almost brought the government down before it was even formed.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379378" style="width: 1400px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-379378" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Thailand-Somkid-Jatusripitak-Finance-Minister-2018-e1568276095218.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="934" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Thailand-Somkid-Jatusripitak-Finance-Minister-2018-e1568276095218.jpg 1400w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Thailand-Somkid-Jatusripitak-Finance-Minister-2018-e1568276095218-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak heads a faction inside the ruling Palang Pracharat Party. Photo: Facebook</figcaption></figure>
<p>The squabbling revealed divisions among three main PPRP factions &#8211; one military under Prayut, one technocratic under Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, and one of old-school operators who manufactured PPRP’s election win – and signaled a potential future source of intra-government instability.</p>
<p>Some analysts suggest the situation could very quickly turn into a ministerial feeding frenzy, one that makes ex-prime minister Chatichai Choonhavan’s notorious “buffet Cabinet” look like a tea time snack, particularly if signs emerge that the government could be more short-lived than anticipated.</p>
<p>It’s demise would then become a sort of self-fulfilling, widely projected prophecy, with all of the attendant scandals and corruption the Peua Thai and Future Forward opposition will be only too happy to expose. Cannon fodder for a no-confidence debate is quickly emerging.</p>
<p>A Sydney Morning Herald <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/from-sinister-to-minister-politician-s-drug-trafficking-jail-time-revealed-20190906-p52opz.html">report </a>citing court and other official documents revealed this week that Deputy Agriculture Minister Thammanat Prompow was jailed for four years in Australia for smuggling 3.2 kilograms of heroin while in active military service, and was later after changing his name implicated but acquitted in the rape and murder of a Thai academic, will make an early and easy opposition target.</p>
<p>Thammanat, who according to documents told Australian police he had served as a royal bodyguard, is now widely seen as the “enforcer” in Prayut’s government, charged with keeping disparate parties in relative line. He had earlier downplayed the conviction but now says he plans to sue the newspaper.</p>
<p>Certain Bangkok-based diplomats and analysts believe that Thammanat&#8217;s name was not on Prayut’s original Cabinet list submitted to the palace but was on the one finally returned with the monarch’s endorsement.</p>
<p>While Thailand has returned to democratic politics, the concurrent rise of a more assertive monarchy adds new complicated dynamics, ones that may be hard to decipher and ones that some observers suggest could morph into an unspoken democracy versus monarchy contest, depending on how each side plays their hands in the months ahead.</p>
<figure id="attachment_341174" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-341174" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Thailand-Vajiralongkorn-Royal-Coronation-Bangkok-May-4-2019-e1556967174422.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Thailand-Vajiralongkorn-Royal-Coronation-Bangkok-May-4-2019-e1556967174422.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Thailand-Vajiralongkorn-Royal-Coronation-Bangkok-May-4-2019-e1556967174422-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Thailand-Vajiralongkorn-Royal-Coronation-Bangkok-May-4-2019-e1556967174422-1568x1047.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A woman holds up a portrait of Thailand&#8217;s King Maha Vajiralongkorn in front of the Grand Palace ahead of his coronation in Bangkok on May 4, 2019. Photo: AFP/ Manan Vatsyayana</figcaption></figure>
<p>It is thus perhaps unsurprising that when a string of low-grade bombs detonated coincident with last month’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign minister meeting in Bangkok, Prayut’s coming out party as a rehabilitated elected leader, the list of credible suspects was long and wide.</p>
<p>Analysts have suggested variously that the culprits were peeved southern insurgents making a well-timed political point, pro-Thaksin operatives keen to knock Prayut’s stability narrative with global leaders in attendance, or even rogue police piqued by Prayut and the military&#8217;s carving up and undercutting of their interests.</p>
<p>While nobody has yet taken responsibility for the mostly symbolic blasts, it is clear that various actors have incentive to rock his new government’s foundation.</p>
<p>And while the true culprits will likely never be known, the bombs indicated elections and a democratic transition haven’t resolved various still simmering issues under the mainstream political surface, which while not poised to blow now could yet erupt before an orderly electoral transition in four years time.</p>
<p><em>This analysis is adapted from a recent Asia Times presentation made to a delegation of visiting foreign investors in Bangkok. </em></p>
Stephen Young says handling of Hong Kong crisis has undermined late leader Deng Xiaoping’s plan to woo Taiwan
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/one-country-two-systems-is-dead-former-us-envoy/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/one-country-two-systems-is-dead-former-us-envoy/<p>Stephen Young, a former US diplomat who served in Hong Kong and Taiwan as Washington&#8217;s top envoy, noted in a recent column that Chinese President Xi Jinping had displayed utter contempt for efforts to establish more open political practices in both places.</p>
<p>Young said that the &#8220;one country, two systems&#8221; framework, intended for Taiwan and in place in Hong Kong, was dead now that &#8220;the Chinese leopard shows its spots.&#8221;</p>
<p>Young grew up in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung and headed the American Institute in Taiwan, Washington&#8217;s quasi-embassy on the island, between 2006 and 2009. He also served as consul-general to Hong Kong between 2010 and 2013 while holding the &#8220;ambassador&#8221; rank.</p>
<p>Young said that when the Chinese Communist Party patriarch Deng Xiaoping broached &#8220;one country, two systems&#8221; in the early 1980s, he needed to restore China’s credibility abroad to reassure a skeptical world that it could be trusted, as he tried to establish a path toward regaining Hong Kong and Taiwan to complete a greater China that had not existed for a century.</p>
<p>Deng went to great lengths to convince London and the world that the economic and political freedoms Hong Kong had under the British would be preserved and perhaps even enhanced.</p>
<p>Deng made use of two factors in Beijing&#8217;s favor: Washington&#8217;s shift of diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, and the looming expiration of London’s 99-year lease on the New Territories, which is the bulk of Hong Kong&#8217;s landmass.</p>
<p>Back then, Taiwan was still reeling from Washington’s severance of ties, followed by a steady stream of similar decisions by other longtime partners in the West. However, th island managed to democratize at the end of the 1980s. By comparison, those in Hong Kong chose to ride on the coattails of China&#8217;s reform and opening-up throughout the same period, dismissing the Tiananmen Square massacre in June 1989 as &#8220;a harbinger of troubled times,&#8221; wrote Young.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379462" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-379462" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/1121247847_1498976315445_title0h.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="388" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A 2017 file photo shows Chinese President Xi Jinping in Hong Kong. The city&#8217;s leader Carrie Lam is seen on the left. Photo: Xinhua</figcaption></figure>
<p>But since Xi took control of China in 2012, the political system has regressed to even more authoritarian practices at home and to greater belligerence abroad. Xi&#8217;s aggressive handling of Hong Kong has shattered Deng Xiaoping’s plan to use the “one country, two systems” concept to woo Taiwan, and that Hong Kong now serves as a lesson to the self-ruled island that he has vowed to take back into Beijing&#8217;s fold.</p>
<p>&#8220;Beijing has reneged on its pledges to introduce local autonomy and democracy to Hong Kong, and has ratcheted up military and political pressure across the Taiwan Strait. It may be too late for the people of Hong Kong to salvage something from their push for a more open political system there.</p>
<p>&#8220;But the lesson for Taiwan’s 23 million citizens is different. Build your defenses, solidify your relations with your essential security partner, America, and make it clear you will fight for your freedom,” said Young.</p>
<p>The US State Department had already expressed Washington&#8217;s “grave concern” over the proposed – and now retracted – extradition legislation at the root of the protests, and as the confrontations escalated, US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued warnings to Beijing, telling it to deal with the protests &#8220;in a humane way.&#8221;</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Joseph Bosco, a former China country director in the office of the US secretary of defense, also noted in an interview with Taiwanese papers that Hongkongers were leading the way in the first major ideological confrontation of the &#8220;new cold war&#8221; that Beijing had launched against the West.</p>
<p>He said the US and other Western governments, with far more sophisticated communications instruments at their disposal, should follow the Hong Kong protesters’ lead and prepare &#8220;an unapologetic name-and-shame campaign against Chinese leaders,&#8221; including Xi&#8217;s going back on Deng&#8217;s pledges as well as Beijing&#8217;s new rhetoric that the Joint Declaration on Hong Kong&#8217;s return and &#8220;one country, two systems&#8221; entered into by Beijing and London is no longer legally binding as a &#8220;historical document.&#8221;</p>
<p>But the military expert is of the view that Beijing will not call in its troops stationed in the city or draw reinforcements from across the border, for now.</p>
<p>&#8220;Beijing will refrain from overt interference as long as the protests [are] confined to downtown government and police buildings,&#8221; said Bosco.</p>
Nearly 90% of digitally active Chinese have adoped the technology, the highest rate in the world
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/lets-get-chinese-fintech-into-the-rest-of-the-world/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/lets-get-chinese-fintech-into-the-rest-of-the-world/<p>The COO of Santander UK and Ireland highlighted China’s outstanding financial technology performance at a 5G forum in Shenzhen recently.</p>
<p>“We have seen some wonderful fintech companies, like Ant Financial, in China, but mostly their technology is focused on the Chinese markets, ” said Michael Harte, who says he wants “get Chinese fintech into the rest of the world.”</p>
<p>There is undoubtedly a broad consensus that Asia, particularly China, has become a global fintech hub.</p>
<p>EY’s Global FinTech Adoption Index 2019 report points out that emerging markets such as China and India are leading the way in fintech adoption. China has 87% fintech adopters among its digitally active population, which is the highest rate in the world. The number is only 71% in the UK and 46% in the US.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-379453" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/WechatIMG28.png" alt="" width="1154" height="1308" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/WechatIMG28.png 1154w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/WechatIMG28-768x870.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1154px) 100vw, 1154px" />(designed by Asia Times)</p>
<p>Another Global Fintech Hub Report from China’ Zhejiang University points out that China leads in the number and percentage of fintech users. Of the top seven global fintech hubs, four are in China, two are in the US and one is in the UK.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-379454" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/WechatIMG29.png" alt="" width="1510" height="935" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/WechatIMG29.png 1510w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/WechatIMG29-768x476.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1510px) 100vw, 1510px" />(designed by Asia Times)</p>
<p>Chinese cross-border fintech brands are accelerating their pace of development. According to a China-based media think-tank, EO Intelligence, as the demographic dividend declines and domestic competition intensifies, Chinese fintech companies are seeking additional business opportunities abroad. Also, China’s fast pace of growth in AI, big data and cloud computing technology has facilitated the expansion of its fintech companies overseas, especially to emerging markets in Africa and Southeast Asia, etc.</p>
<p>In these emerging marketplaces, financial infrastructures are typically in an underdeveloped condition. Speaking of potential risks caused by fintech companies in these regions, Harte said Chinese fintech companies can bring positive transitions there despite the lack of financial infrastructure.</p>
<p>Harte said in an interview with Asia Times, “Chinese fintech companies will embed good rules and practices and make sure that products are suitable for customers in these regions. If people are given access to insurance, credit, risk management and saving products, it’s easier to grow their financial well-being, educate them and improve their financial literacy.”</p>
<p>In addition, fintech, by creating an open market, can consequently improve regulations and transparency in these marketplaces, added Harte.</p>
<p>For Chinese fintech companies expanding their businesses into the rest of the world, Harte sees several key opportunities.</p>
<p>One opportunity is the locations of fintech. Chinese fintech companies can set up incubators outside of China. In this way, they can avoid skepticism of China’s technology security concerns from western countries.</p>
<p>Another opportunity for Chinese fintech companies is focusing on establishing an open ecosystem and partnerships. An open ecosystem means the creation of incubators needs to be open enough to include diverse types of companies – large corporations, medium-sized corporations and start-up companies. Therefore, Chinese companies are able to build businesses in other marketplaces by being established within incubators.</p>
<p>As for partnerships, Chinese fintech companies can look to build partnerships with other countries’ organizations over a wide range of domains, such as identity, privacy, payment, data management, etc.</p>
<p><em>This article was written by Huang Wanyi in Chinese on <a href="http://atimescn.com/mobile/FinancialfinanceView-8186.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ATimesCN.com</a>. Huang also wrote the English version.</em></p>
https://youtu.be/wD8VR1cqknI, 77
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/ceo-jack-ma-bids-farewell-in-rock-star-style-2/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/ceo-jack-ma-bids-farewell-in-rock-star-style-2/https://youtu.be/QuSCiG-txJw, 74
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/majors-mull-options-as-trade-war-hits-oil-prices-2/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/majors-mull-options-as-trade-war-hits-oil-prices-2/https://youtu.be/LfoxYPt0UJs, 58
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/talks-to-resume-but-dont-expect-a-deal-china-warns-3/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/talks-to-resume-but-dont-expect-a-deal-china-warns-3/https://youtu.be/ie9hCH7k3z0, 90
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hk-leader-withdraws-hated-extradition-bill/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hk-leader-withdraws-hated-extradition-bill/A newspaper alleged people were brainwashed by the song with an ideology for independence
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/pro-beijing-media-criticizes-hks-new-anthem/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/pro-beijing-media-criticizes-hks-new-anthem/<p>For two consecutive nights, thousands of Hong Kong citizens have packed shopping malls and sang the popular protest song <em>Glory to Hong Kong</em>.</p>
<p>But the tune has not been a hit with the pro-establishment media, which called it a song calling for Hong Kong&#8217;s independence.</p>
<p>Wen Wei Po, a Beijing-back Chinese-language newspaper in Hong Kong, published <a href="http://epaper.wenweipo.com/flipping_book/index.php#/wenweipo/20190912/0/1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a front-page story</a> alleging the song spread an ideology of separatism.</p>
<p>The newspaper cited the human chains formed by secondary school students during the week and the World Cup qualifying match in Hong Kong Stadium as examples, saying young people were being brainwashed with an ideology to call for the independence of the city.</p>
<p>The report also slammed &#8220;Hong Kong Way,&#8221; the human chain formed by Hong Kong protesters in August. That idea was inspired by the Baltic Way, when two million people joined hands to form a human chain spanning several hundred kilometers across the states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, in a peaceful political stunt against Soviet rule in 1989.</p>
<p>Johnny Lau Yiu-siu, a political commentator on China affairs, said he believed the song had not yet been classed as a promotion of independence, even though some regarded it as the “Hong Kong anthem.”</p>
<p>He said the Beijing government was still observing the political situation in the city and the level of participation by the general public, Apple Daily reported.</p>
<p>Lau praised <em>Glory to Hong Kong</em> as a song which told how Hong Kong people feel and said it gave them hope in the current political atmosphere with its melody and lyrics.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Hong Kong people continued to show their determination and used <em>Glory to Hong Kong</em> to express their frustrations and solidarity over the months-long anti-extradition bill saga, which started in June.</p>
<p>On Wednesday night, people flooded into malls such as the New Town Plaza in Sha Tin, Olympian City in West Kowloon, Plaza Hollywood in Diamond Hill, Tsuen Wan Plaza and Domain Mall in Yau Tong and sang the song with gusto for at least an hour. Some bought flutes and tubas to play along with the song.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rxPncxaKGx8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLBDOpR8ptUzFNHE0KY5DrYAxdy4EzXvb4" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>The singing was immediately followed by applause, cheers and then the chanting of slogans. The mass sing-alongs were largely peaceful.</p>
<p>However, scuffles happened at Amoy Plaza in Kowloon Bay when one man took a video of people singing and he then sang China’s anthem in an apparent protest.</p>
<p>On Thursday afternoon, hundreds of China supporters responded to a call on social media and arrived at the upscale IFC mall in Central with Chinese national flags and sang the national anthem together. They chanted the slogan “China, add oil.”</p>
<p>The event mimicked the song singing and slogans chanted by anti-extradition bill protesters in the past few nights. However, the scene turned chaotic when people from the pro-democracy side rushed to the mall and outnumbered those singing patriotic songs.</p>
<p>Shops in the mall were shuttered as disputes broke out between the two groups. Some people carrying China&#8217;s national flags abused the anti-extradition bill protesters, calling them “cockroaches” and “rubbish.” Some Hong Kong people held placards with “vindication June 4” in front of the patriotic side before they left.</p>
<p>Andrew Fung, the information coordinator of former Chief Executive CY Leung, was seen arguing with people at the scene.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eVufpg2deWQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/protesters-to-form-human-chain-across-hong-kong/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read: Protesters to form human chain across Hong Kong</a></p>
Beijing says Lee Meng-chu committed offences endangering China’s national security
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/taiwanese-held-after-taking-pics-of-troops-in-shenzen/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/taiwanese-held-after-taking-pics-of-troops-in-shenzen/<p>For weeks, friends and relatives of a Taiwanese who went missing in Shenzhen after a brief stay in Hong Kong last month have wondered what happened to Lee Meng-chu, aka Morrison Lee, and whether his disappearance in the Chinese city had anything to do with his support for the protests in Hong Kong.</p>
<p>Lee, 44, who hailed from Hsinchu near Taipei, is believed to have been nabbed by Chinese security agents after he was found taking pictures and footage of a drill by China&#8217;s military police at the Shenzhen Bay Sports Center, which is just across a narrow stretch of water from Hong Kong.</p>
<p>Taiwan&#8217;s Presidential Office and the Mainland Affairs Council have demanded that Beijing give a full account of why Lee has been detained, as nothing has been heard of him for almost four weeks.</p>
<p>In Beijing, the Chinese State Council&#8217;s Taiwan Affairs Office confirmed on Wednesday that Lee had been investigated on suspicion of &#8220;engaging in criminal activity harmful to China&#8217;s national security.&#8221; A spokesman said Lee was being detained &#8220;in accordance with the law,&#8221; without elaborating further.</p>
<p>Some reports say Lee was tracked down soon after he sent photos – likely via WeChat – about Chinese paramilitary troops being massed along the border with Hong Kong to a colleague in Pingtung, Taiwan.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379397" style="width: 257px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class="size-full wp-image-379397" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/p01-190912-detained.jpg" alt="" width="257" height="333" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Lee Meng-chu went missing on Aug 20 after entering Shenzhen from Hong Kong. Photo: Handout</figcaption></figure>
<p>Lee is an adviser to a rural government in Pingtung and also sits on the board of the Taiwan United Nations Alliance, an advocacy group for the island&#8217;s membership in the UN.</p>
<p>He flew to Hong Kong on August 18 and crossed the border to Shenzhen two days later on a business trip. It is also said that Lee took part in an anti-extradition bill protest while in Hong Kong before entering the mainland, which could also explain why he was held given officials in Shenzhen ratcheted up checks on visitors from Hong Kong as the protests dragged on.</p>
<p>Taiwan is prodding Beijing to provide more details about why and when Lee was detained and where he is being kept, as a cross-strait agreement on mutual judicial assistance stipulates that each must inform the other side promptly when a resident is detained or arrested.</p>
<p>&#8220;Beijing and the Shenzhen government should arrange for Lee&#8217;s family and a lawyer to visit him as soon as possible to ensure the legal rights he is entitled to,&#8221; Taiwan&#8217;s Mainland Affairs Council said.</p>
<p>Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation, a de-facto government agency that represents Taipei in cross-strait exchanges, told reporters it had sent three requests to its mainland counterpart, the Association of Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, which represents Beijing, for assistance in locating Lee since he was reported missing on August 20.</p>
<p>Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party condemned Beijing on Wednesday, adding what the mainland did would only estrange Taiwanese further and make them more fearful about visiting the mainland.</p>
<figure id="attachment_371301" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class="size-full wp-image-371301" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/HK-soldiers.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/HK-soldiers.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/HK-soldiers-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/HK-soldiers-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/HK-soldiers-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/HK-soldiers-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Chinese military personnel gather at the Shenzhen Bay stadium, across the border from Hong Kong in Guangdong province, on August 15, 2019. Photo: AFP</figcaption></figure>
<p>Previously, Shenzhen police told Lee’s family that they did not have a record of him entering the city via any of the border checkpoints despite claims by Lee’s friends that he had dined with them in the city, according to Taiwan&#8217;s Central News Agency and Hong Kong&#8217;s South China Morning Post.</p>
<p>“What Beijing&#8217;s Taiwan Affairs Office said was an admission that Lee did enter Shenzhen and got arrested in the city on what were likely fabricated charges,” Lee&#8217;s relatives said.</p>
<p>In March 2017, another Taiwanese NGO worker employed by the DPP also disappeared after entering the mainland from Macau, and only resurfaced six months later when he was charged and convicted with “subversion of state power”.</p>
<p><strong>Read more:</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/beijing-accuses-taiwan-as-hk-spirals-into-crisis/">Beijing accuses Taiwan as HK spirals into crisis</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/visitors-to-china-warned-about-phone-checks/">Visitors to China warned about phone checks</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/hongkongers-interrogated-and-checked-at-borders/?_=7006765">Hongkongers interrogated and checked at borders</a></p>
High housing prices have been blamed as the root causes of the Hong Kong protests
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hk-property-prices-down-3-5-on-protests-trade-war/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hk-property-prices-down-3-5-on-protests-trade-war/<p>Property prices in Hong Kong have been declining since anti-extradition protests started in June, while the city’s economy has also suffered from the trade war between China and the United States.</p>
<p>Cents-City Leading Index, <a href="http://www1.centadata.com/cci/cci_e.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">compiled</a> by the Centaline Property Agency to reflect secondary private home prices, decreased 1.58% to 185.45 for the week ended September 1 from one month earlier. The sub-index dropped 3.73% in Kowloon, 2.47% in the New Territories West and 0.55% on Hong Kong, but increased 0.58% in the New Territories East.</p>
<p>Hong Kong’s overall home prices have eased from 3% to 5% from the historical peak in June and may further decline by 5% to 10% in the fourth quarter of this year if the protests continue, DTZ Hong Kong managing director Alva To Yu-hung told local media on Tuesday.</p>
<p>The average rent of residential apartments in 107 major real estate firms in Hong Kong fell to HK$37.5 (US$4.79) per square foot in August from a historical high of HK$37.9 per square foot in July, according to <a href="http://hk.centanet.com/home/ArticleTemplate4.aspx?id=91211" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> compiled by the research department of the Centaline Property Agency on September 10.</p>
<h4>A reason to protest</h4>
<p>In the past few weeks, Beijing and the international media have said that high property prices were one of the main causes of the Hong Kong protests. In early September, Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said the Hong Kong government would set up a task force to tackle the city’s deep-rooted problems, including high property prices and low social mobility.</p>
<p>It was the first time August has seen a decline in Hong Kong rents since 2008, said Wong Leung-sing, Centaline&#8217;s senior associate director of research. The decline, caused by a slowing Hong Kong economy amid the US-China trade war, showed Hong Kong’s rents could have entered a correction cycle, Wong said.</p>
<p>Luxury rental prices have also declined by up to 30%. Several developers have dropped prices by at least 10%.</p>
<p>On September 10, Culling West III, jointly developed by Sun Hung Kai Properties and the MTR Corp and located at Nam Cheong station, announced it was selling 235 apartments at an average price of HK$21,772 per square foot, including all discounts, only 2.7% up from the price in November 2017.</p>
<p>Developers said the conservative selling price was set due to the recent social unrest.</p>
<p>Due to the lower-than-expected sale prices in Culling West III, individual sellers in the same district also cut their prices. On Wednesday, a homeowner sold a 449-square-foot apartment in Park Avenue in Tai Kok Tsui for HK$9.7 million, about 3% lower than the market price and 15.7% down from the original asking price of HK$11.5 million.</p>
<p>The seller still made a profit of HK$6 million as he bought the apartment for HK$3.7 million in 2007, according to the Hong Kong Property Services (Agency) Ltd.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, a homeowner sold a 678-square-foot apartment in Mei Foo Sun Chuen for HK$9.5 million, 17% off the original asking price of HK$11.5 million. The seller made a HK$2.2 million profit over four years, according to Ricacorp Properties.</p>
<p>Home prices in Mei Foo Sun Chuen have decreased 9% to the current level of HK$13,400 per square foot, from HK$14,700 per square in May, according to Midland Holdings.</p>
<p>At the end of this year, prices will probably be flat from one year ago, To said.</p>
<p>In July, the private home price index was 394.4, down 0.1% from June, or 0.7% from May, according to <a href="https://www.rvd.gov.hk/mobile/en/property_market_statistics/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> compiled by the Rating and Valuation Department. However, the rental index surged 0.3% from 196.7 in June to 197.3 in July, the highest in 10 months.</p>
<p>Restaurants, hotels, high-end retailers and travel and property agencies have been affected by the protests since June, but their owners have not cut their staff so far, said Ivan Yeung Chun-man, chief investment officer at Infinitus Partners Asset Management Ltd.</p>
<p>This was why property prices had not dropped significantly as homeowners could still pay their mortgage loans with their salaries or savings, Yeung added.</p>
<p>Property prices will drop significantly only if homeowners have no choice but to sell their apartments amid a slowing economy in Hong Kong, he said.</p>
<p>The recent unrest will hurt potential buyers’ confidence in investing in Hong Kong’s apartments, said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at French investment bank Natixis. New buyers may consider diversifying their property investments to Australia, the United States, Southeast Asia and the United Kingdom, she said.</p>
<h4>Increasing land supply</h4>
<p>The Hong Kong government may launch stronger measures to increase land and housing supply in the long run as high property prices were cited as one of the reasons for the social conflicts, she said. These two factors will continue to add pressure to Hong Kong’s home prices, she added.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, a pro-Beijing political party, suggested the Hong Kong government buy back farmland owned by local property giants to increase the land supply.</p>
<p>The Real Estate Developers Association of Hong Kong said property developers were not opposed to the suggestion. However, it remained unclear whether the Hong Kong government would buy the farmland at market prices or discounts.</p>
Ministry of Commerce outlines plans to boost US food purchases, including pork and soybeans
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/china-uses-pork-chop-diplomacy-to-end-trade-war/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/china-uses-pork-chop-diplomacy-to-end-trade-war/<p class="p1">China&#8217;s President Xi Jinping aims to use pork-chop diplomacy to end the trade war with the United States.</p>
<p class="p1">In another dramatic twist on Thursday, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced it was &#8220;making inquiries&#8221; about buying American farm products ahead of high-level talks in Washington next month.</p>
<p class="p1">Included in the big-ticket items would be pork and soybeans, according to the ministry.</p>
<p>&#8220;Chinese companies have started making inquiries on the procurement of US agricultural products,&#8221; Gao Feng, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, told a media briefing, making it clear that pork and soybeans were on the menu.</p>
<p class="p1">To put this into context, pork prices in China surged by 46.7% last month on the back of an African swine fever epidemic in the world’s second-largest economy.</p>
<p class="p1">The year-on-year jump illustrated the depth of the problem after millions of pigs were slaughtered or died from the outbreak.</p>
<p class="p1">Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the cost of food in the official Consumer Price Index, or CPI, jumped by 10% in August compared to the same period in 2018.</p>
<p class="p1">Significantly, that was the highest level in more than seven years.</p>
<h4>Goodwill gestures</h4>
<p class="p1">“Consumer price inflation should accelerate in the coming months as pig stocks continue to fall,” Julian Evans-Pritchard and Martin Rasmussen, economists with Capital Economics, wrote in a note, earlier this week.</p>
<p class="p1">Still, this move by Beijing is the latest in a flurry of goodwill gestures from both sides in the year-long trade dispute.</p>
<p class="p1">It also comes a day after US President Donald Trump said he would delay a planned hike in tariffs on Chinese imports worth US$250 billion until October 15.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;We have agreed, as a gesture of goodwill, to move the increased Tariffs on 250 Billion Dollars worth of goods [25% to 30%] from October 1st to October 15th,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday evening.</p>
<p class="p1"><strong>Read:</strong> <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hogageddon-forces-up-pork-prices-in-china/">Hogageddon forces up pork prices in China</a></p>
<p class="p1">“[The delay was requested by] Vice-Premier of China, Liu He, and due to the fact that the People&#8217;s Republic of China will be celebrating their 70th Anniversary,” he added.</p>
<p class="p1">Beijing had earlier announced a list of items that would be exempt from its own planned levies, but which did not include significant imports such as pork. That has now changed.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;I hope that the two sides will continue to take practical actions to create favorable conditions for consultations, which will benefit both China and the United States,&#8221; spokesman Feng said.</p>
<p class="p1">In the past 12 months, American farmers have born the brunt of the trade spat, especially after soy exports collapsed, virtually wiping out foreign markets farmers had spent years cultivating. Trump has offered billions in aid to farms badly damaged in the trade conflict.</p>
<h4>Trade tensions</h4>
<p class="p1">At least these signs of easing tensions have fuelled hopes of a breakthrough in high-level negotiations in Washington next month and given Asian markets a shot in the arm.</p>
<p class="p1">“[The delay] shows Trump doesn&#8217;t want to increase tariffs before the trade talks in early October and it creates good conditions,” Tommy Xie, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, said.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;It adds to the hope that there&#8217;ll be good news from the October meeting, and markets will wait and see.&#8221;</p>
<p class="p1">The developments were broadly welcomed in early trading although Asian markets struggled to hold on to initial rallies.</p>
<p class="p1">At the close, Tokyo ended 0.8% higher along with Shanghai. Sydney climbed 0.3% while Mumbai and Taipei posted modest gains.</p>
<p class="p1">But Hong Kong dipped 0.3% while Singapore, Wellington, Jakarta and Manila were also down.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;Just as the presidential tweet on tariffs &#8230; has injected more momentum into stocks and most likely emerging-market assets, what one hand gives the other can take away,&#8221; Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA, the international forex group, said in a note.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;We are only one social media posting away from a thoroughly unpredictable president turning sentiment on its head,” he added.</p>
<p class="p1"><em>– additional reporting by AFP</em></p>
Taking half measures to address lack of coordination among services has been endemic in India’s culture
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/indias-underwhelming-new-defense-chief/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/indias-underwhelming-new-defense-chief/<p>While a key military reform pending for two decades was finally announced last month, its efficacy remains suspect among the country&#8217;s top generals.</p>
<p>On India&#8217;s 72nd Independence Day, August 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood on the ramparts of the historic Red Fort to deliver his equivalent of the state of the union address. Among the few newsworthy items in the speech was his announcement of a new top post in India&#8217;s military, the <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/prime-minister-narendra-modi-chief-of-defence-staff-position-5908744/">Chief of Defense Staff</a> (CDS).</p>
<p>&#8220;Our forces are India&#8217;s pride,&#8221; Modi said. &#8220;To further sharpen coordination between the forces, I want to announce a major decision from the Red Fort: India will have a chief of defense staff. This is going to make the forces even more effective.&#8221;</p>
<p>The CDS was envisaged nearly 20 years ago as filling a &#8220;single-point military advisory role&#8221; for the government. It was meant to end the confusion among the three services during a conflict and ensure that the government could get all three to speak in a unified manner.</p>
<p>The proposal to appoint such a unifying official came in the aftermath of the Kargil conflict, a short, sharp war between India and Pakistan fought in the summer of 1999.</p>
<p>In late April of 1999, mountain shepherds discovered the presence of Pakistani army soldiers occupying Indian military posts that had customarily been vacated during the winter when temperatures fell to nearly minus 20 degrees Celsius. That was the tacit arrangement between the Indian and Pakistan armies until the Kargil war.</p>
<p>The Indian Army mobilized and began operations to evict the Pakistanis who threatened to cut off a strategic highway that connected Kashmir to the Ladakh region in the east.</p>
<h4>Gaping holes</h4>
<p>The failure to detect the Pakistanis in timely fashion led to a considerable debate and the <a href="http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/India/KargilRCA.html">Kargil Review Committee (KRC)</a> was set up under former bureaucrat K Subrahmanyam. Hailed as the doyen of India&#8217;s modern strategic thinkers, Subrahmanyam used the opportunity to push for military and intelligence reforms responding to problems he had grappled with throughout his career in the government.</p>
<p>The KRC identified a series of intelligence and military failures that prevented the Indians from identifying the Pakistani moves in time.</p>
<p>The lack of a single-point military adviser to the government was a key lacuna identified by the KRC. It examined the military hierarchies in the US and UK and came around to the fact that the military needed to set up the position of the CDS. The position would be similar to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US military, or the CDS in the UK.</p>
<p>&#8220;After the CDS was mooted, the Indian Air Force became a <a href="https://www.financialexpress.com/defence/debate-on-chief-of-defence-staff-stop-projecting-iaf-as-a-villain/1683107/">major opponent</a> to the recommendation,&#8221; a senior bureaucrat in the Ministry of Defense told Asia Times. &#8220;For over a decade they worried that their ability to function independently would be curtailed once a CDS was appointed.&#8221;</p>
<p>The nub of the problem for the air force was India&#8217;s ingrained predilection for looking at the army as the primary force to deal with all external threats. &#8220;For decades, the army has dominated budgets and Indian military planners have taken a continental approach to warfare,&#8221; a senior Indian Air Force officer said. &#8220;But the nature of warfare has changed dramatically, and now superiority in the air is the deciding factor.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;The fact that Indian Army plays a leading role in dealing with armed insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir and India&#8217;s North East also explains why they are considered the primary force,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Military strategists also looked at history and past threats to India for understanding how to shape the conflicts of the future. Most invasions into India came from the north, with some invaders crossing the Hindu Kush to attack the Indo-Gangetic plains or to settle down as conquerors.</p>
<p>But the Indian Navy is quick to point out that the greatest conqueror in India&#8217;s history came by water. The British colonialists arrived via the sea and kept the Indian colony going for over 200 years using their ships.</p>
<p>But Subrahmanyam and his colleagues on the committee were dealing with modern threats that had to take the needs of each service and match them to the wars of the future.</p>
<p>&#8220;The root of the problem is that in South Asia we don&#8217;t have any concept of joint operations,&#8221; the senior defense ministry official pointed out. &#8220;Look at the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force. The Eastern Command of the army is in Kolkata, while the Air Force Eastern Command is a few hundred kilometers away in Shillong, which does not even have a decent air field. They don&#8217;t even sit together. How will they operate together. It is a fact that India&#8217;s three armed services have not learnt how to fight together.&#8221;</p>
<h4>Building synergy</h4>
<p>During the second world war, a maverick British officer, Major General Orde Wingate, took it upon himself to blunt a planned Japanese invasion into British India through Burma. As British and American troops gathered hastily to take on the challenge, Wingate came up with a bold plan.</p>
<p>He decided to train three brigades and send them behind enemy lines into Burma to harass the Japanese army divisions that were designated for the invasion of India. Using Royal Indian Air Force and United States Air Force planes to supply the three brigades, Wingate created havoc among the Japanese. That was the last time the army and the air force trained and operated together in a major campaign in the Indian sub-continent.</p>
<p>Since then, the army, air force and navy have trained and operated separately, making separate plans for various kinds of contingencies. Worse, the ministry of defense became the India hub for bureaucrats as the military was pushed out from key policy making areas.</p>
<p>&#8220;There was fear that India could fall prey to a military coup,&#8221; a senior Indian Army General said. &#8220;This ensured that those in uniform were kept out of most policy decisions.&#8221;</p>
<p>Subrahmanyam and his colleagues on the Committee tried to resolve this fundamental issue. When they recommended the CDS, they had the US Chairman, of the Joint Chiefs and the Pentagon in mind, a military veteran who worked with them in 1999-2000 said.</p>
<p>They studied the Goldwater-Nichols Act, which had reformed the US military and brought in joint operations capabilities previously lacking.</p>
<p>Subrahmanyam&#8217;s recommendation was to create an &#8220;integrated headquarters of the ministry of defense&#8221; that would allow serving military personnel to also serve as bureaucrats. This was never permitted and was quietly buried.</p>
<p>&#8220;Simply appointing a CDS will never address this,&#8221; the general said. &#8220;If he is from the army, what will he know about air force and naval operations? Will he be able to provide the best possible advice to the government?&#8221;</p>
<p>The current army chief, General Bipin Rawat, is tipped to be the first CDS. Considered close to the government, Rawat was picked over two of his seniors to head the army two years ago.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s not set, though. For now the government says that a CDS implementation committee headed by the national security adviser will look at all aspects of the issue before the appointment is made a couple of months from now.</p>
<p>It is also a matter of concern that the proposed CDS will be a four-star General, just like the current service chiefs are. He will also not have any operational control over any formation. This, say observers, is likely to create more problems and reduce the role of the CDS without addressing systemic gaps in the Indian military.</p>
After years of reporting on the Global War on Terror, many questions behind the US attacks remain unresolved
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/we-are-all-hostages-of-9-11/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/we-are-all-hostages-of-9-11/<p>Afghanistan was bombed and invaded because of 9/11. I was there from the start, even before 9/11. On August 20, 2001, I <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090628014830/http:/www.atimes.com/ind-pak/CI12Df01.html">interviewed </a>commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, the “Lion of the Panjshir,” who told me about an “unholy alliance” of the Taliban, al-Qaeda and the ISI (Pakistani intel).</p>
<p>Back in Peshawar, I learned that something really big was coming: my article was <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110109140745/http:/www.atimes.com/ind-pak/CH30Df01.html">published</a> by Asia Times on August 30. Commander Massoud was killed on September 9: I received a terse email from a Panjshir source, only stating, “the commander has been shot.” Two days later, 9/11 happened.</p>
<p>And yet, the day before, none other than Osama bin Laden, in person, was in a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hospital-worker-i-saw-osama/">Pakistani hospital</a> in Rawalpindi, receiving treatment, as CBS reported. Bin Laden was proclaimed the perpetrator already at 11am on 9/11 – with no investigation whatsoever. It should have been not exactly hard to locate him in Pakistan and “bring him to justice.”</p>
<p>In December 2001 I was in Tora Bora tracking bin Laden – under B-52 bombers and side by side with Pashtun mujahideen. Later, in 2011, I would <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/05/2011558323828163.html">revisit</a> the day bin Laden vanished forever.</p>
<p>One year after 9/11, I was back in Afghanistan for an <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030219170617/http:/www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/DI12Ag02.html">in-depth investigation</a> of the killing of Massoud. By then it was possible to establish a Saudi connection: the letter of introduction for Massoud’s killers, who posed as journalists, was facilitated by commander Sayyaf, a Saudi asset.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379113" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-379113" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Osama-video.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1127" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Osama-video.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Osama-video-768x541.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Osama-video-1568x1104.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Saudi-born alleged terror mastermind Osama bin Laden is seen in a video taken at a secret site in Afghanistan. This was aired by Al-Jazeera on Oct. 7, 2001, the day the US launched bombing of terrorist camps, airbases and air defense installations in its campaign against the Taliban for sheltering bin Laden. Photo: AFP</figcaption></figure>
<p>For three years my life revolved around the Global War on Terror; most of the time I lived literally on the road, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, the Persian Gulf and Brussels. At the start of &#8216;Shock and Awe&#8217; on Iraq, in March 2003, Asia Times published my <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20040610184657/http:/www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EC20Ak07.html">in-depth investigation</a> of which neo-cons concocted the war on Iraq.</p>
<p>In 2004, roving across the US, I re-traced <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20040606140651/http:/www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FE18Aa03.html">the Taliban&#8217;s trip to Texas</a>, and how a top priority, since the Clinton years all the way to the neo-cons, was about what I had baptized as &#8220;Pipelineistan&#8221; – in this case how to build the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (<a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175306/tomgram%3A_pepe_escobar,_pipelineistan%27s_new_silk_road__/">TAPI</a>) gas pipeline, bypassing Iran and Russia, and extending US control of Central and South Asia.</p>
<p>Later on, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20040627090349/http:/www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FD08Aa01.html">I delved</a> into the hard questions the 9/11 Commission never asked, and how Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign was totally conditioned by and dependent on 9/11.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/911-and-drug-money/5688224">Michael Ruppert</a>, a CIA whistleblower, who may – or may not – have committed suicide in 2014, was a top 9/11 analyst. We exchanged a lot of information, and always emphasized the same points: Afghanistan was all about (existent) heroin and (non-existent) pipelines.</p>
<p>In 2011, the late, great Bob Parry would <a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2011/06/24/the-lie-behind-the-afghan-war/?fbclid=IwAR2Nr3j3GHKdJiFCBoJvI1dcv2SLKp30Lh5kxOAB4VfTKC0uiHt7E1drVeo">debunk more Afghanistan lies</a>. And in 2017, I would detail a top reason why the US will never leave Afghanistan: the <a href="https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201708251056794770-afghanistan-cia-heroin-ratline/">heroin rat line</a>.</p>
<p>Now, President Trump may have identified a possible Afghan deal – which the Taliban, who control two-thirds of the country, are bound to refuse, as it allows withdrawal of only 5,000 out of 13,000 US troops. Moreover, the US &#8216;Deep State&#8217; is absolutely against any deal, as well as India and the rickety government in Kabul.</p>
<p>But Pakistan and China are in favor, especially because Beijing plans to incorporate Kabul into the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and have Afghanistan admitted as a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, thus attaching the Hindu Kush and the Khyber Pass to the ongoing Eurasia integration process.</p>
<h4>Praying for a Pearl</h4>
<p>Eighteen years after the game-changing fact, we all remain hostages of 9/11. US neocons, gathered at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century">Project for the New American Century</a>, had been praying for a “Pearl Harbor” to reorient US foreign policy since 1997. Their prayers were answered beyond their wildest dreams.</p>
<p>Already in <em>The Grand Chessboard</em>, also published in 1997, former National Security Adviser and Trilateral Commission co-founder Zbigniew Brzezinski, nominally not a neocon, had pointed out that the American public &#8220;supported America’s engagement in World War II largely because of the shock effect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.”</p>
<p>So, Brzezinski added, America “may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat.”</p>
<p>As an attack on the homeland, 9/11 generated the Global War on Terror, launched at 11pm on the same day, initially christened “The Long War” by the Pentagon, later sanitized as Overseas Contingency Operations by the Obama administration. This cost trillions of dollars, killed <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/wars-terror-killed-million-people-study-181109080620011.html">over half a million people</a> and branched out into illegal wars against seven Muslim nations – all justified on “humanitarian grounds” and allegedly supported by the “international community.”</p>
<p>Year after year, 9/11 is essentially a You Have The Right to Accept Only The Official Version ritual ceremony, even as widespread evidence suggests the US government knew 9/11 would happen and did not stop it.</p>
<p>Three days after 9/11, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that in June 2001, German intelligence warned the CIA that Middle East terrorists were “planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture.”</p>
<p>In August 2001, President Putin ordered Russian intel to tell the US government “in the strongest possible terms” of imminent attacks on airports and government buildings, MSNBC revealed in an interview with Putin that was broadcast on September 15 that year.</p>
<p>No US government agency has released any information on who used foreknowledge of 9/11 in the financial markets. The US Congress did not even raise the issue. In Germany, investigative financial journalist Lars Schall has been working for years on a massive study detailing to a great extent insider trading before 9/11.</p>
<h4>Mr Mueller, I presume</h4>
<p>Robert Mueller was the Director of the FBI from 2001 to 2003. He was appointed by President Bush only one week before 9/11. Three days after 9/11, Mueller said, “there were no warning signs that I’m aware of” pointing to the possibility of airplanes crashing into buildings.</p>
<p>In fact FBI agents repeatedly accused HQ of blocking myriad investigations before 9/11 that could have prevented it.</p>
<p>In a devastating book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/FBI-Accomplice-11-Documents-ebook/dp/B07TRXKNG2/ref=pd_ybh_a_1?_encoding=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=1511SRSAY4C3EJPTVGHP">The FBI Accomplice of 9/11 (Documents)</a>, written in French and recently translated into English, Patrick Pasin painstakingly tracks all warnings on record: not only to the FBI, directly, but also including the by now notorious “August 6 memo,” which referred to planned attacks involving multiple airplane hijackings. Then National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice famously dismissed the memo as “very vague,” “very non-specific” and “nothing really new here.”</p>
<p>Pasin meticulously aims to prove that the FBI knew all there was to know about indications toward the possibility of a 9/11. But then the bureau silenced them; buried them; made them disappear; fell into a prolonged comma; and, in quite serious instances, may have even forged false evidence, as in arguably fabricating a list of Muslim hijackers, complete with the finding of indestructible passports, and forging impossible phone calls placed at 30,000 feet.</p>
<h4>Trump knows buildings</h4>
<p>Discrediting the official, immutable 9/11 narrative remains the ultimate taboo. Hundreds of <a href="https://www.ae911truth.org">architects and engineers</a> engaged in meticulous technical debunking of all aspects of 9/11’s official story are summarily dismissed as “conspiracy theorists.”</p>
<p>In the afternoon of 9/11, Donald Trump the real estate developer (not yet President of the United States) was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=88&amp;v=xU4GdHLUHwU">interviewed by phone </a>by Channel 9 in New York.</p>
<p>Fasten your seat belts, because this is incandescent. The serial money quotes start rolling at 5:20:</p>
<p>Channel 9: “There is a great deal of questions about whether or not the damage and the ultimate destruction of the buildings was caused by the airplanes, by architectural defect or possibly by bombs, or after-shocks. Do you have any thoughts on that?”</p>
<p>Donald Trump: “It wasn’t architectural defect. The World Trade Center was always known as a very, very strong building. Don’t forget that it took a big bomb in the basement [in 1993]. Now the basement is the most vulnerable place, because that is your foundation and it withstood that. And I got to see that area about 3 or 4 days after it took place, because one of my structural engineers actually took me for a tour because he did the building. And I said ‘I can’t believe it’. The building was standing solid and half of the columns were blown out. This was an unbelievably powerful building if you know anything about structure. It was one of the first buildings that was built from the outside. The steel, the reason the WTC had such narrow windows is that in between all the windows you had steel on the outside of the building. That’s why when I first looked at it you had big, heavy I-beams. When I first looked at it I couldn’t believe it because there was a hole in the steel. And this was steel that was … you remember the width of the windows of the World Trade Center, folks, I think that you know, if you were ever up there, they were quite narrow and in between was this heavy steel. I said: How could a plane, even a 767 or 747 or whatever it might have been, how could it possibly go through the steel? I happen to think that <em>they had not only a plane, but they had bombs that exploded almost simultaneously</em>. [italics mine]. Because I just can’t imagine anything being able to go through that wall. Most buildings are built with the steel on the inside around the elevator shafts. This one was built from the outside, which is the strongest structure you can have. And it was almost just like a can of soup.”</p>
<p>Channel 9: “You know…we were looking at pictures all morning long of that plane coming into Building #2. And when you see that approach the far side, then all of a sudden within another millisecond the explosion pops out the other side.”</p>
<p>Donald Trump: “Right. I just think that <em>there was a plane with more than jet fuel.” </em>[italics mine]</p>
<p>Donald Trump may be extremely controversial – and all things for all people. But one thing the former real estate developer and current President of the United States does know about is building construction.</p>
<h4>Serious questions</h4>
<p>In contrast, skepticism rooted in Greek and Latin tradition came up with arguably the best documentary on 9/11: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU961SGps8g">Zero</a>, an Italian production. Just as arguably the most stimulating book on 9/11 is also Italian: <a href="http://www.mito11settembre.it">The Myth of September 11</a>, by Roberto Quaglia, which offers a delicately nuanced narrative of 9/11 as a myth structured as a movie. The book became a huge hit in Eastern Europe.</p>
<p><a href="https://digwithin.net/2019/09/08/seven-questions/">Serious questions</a> suggest quite plausible suspects to be investigated regarding 9/11, far more than 19 Arabs with box cutters. Ten years ago, in Asia Times, I asked <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100510145607/http:/www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KI11Ak02.html">50 questions,</a> some of them extremely detailed, about 9/11. After reader demand and suggestions, I <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100411073300/http:/www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KI18Ak02.html">added 20 more.</a> None of these questions were convincingly addressed – not to mention answered – by the official narrative.</p>
<p>World public opinion is directed to believe that on the morning of 9/11 four airliners, presumably hijacked by 19 Arabs with box cutters, traveled undisturbed – for two hours – across the most controlled airspace on the planet, which is supervised by the most devastating military apparatus ever.</p>
<p>American Airlines Flight 11 deviated from its path at 8.13am and crashed into the first World Trade Center tower at 8.57am. Only at 8.46am did NORAD – the North American Aerospace Defense Command – order that two intercepting F-15s take off from Otis military base.</p>
<p>By a curious coincidence a Pentagon war game was in effect on the morning of 9/11 – so air-controllers’ radars may have registered only &#8216;ghost signals&#8217; of nonexistent aircraft simulating an air attack. Well, it was much more complicated than that, as <a href="http://physics911.net/911-intercepted-a-presentation-by-pilots-for-911-truth/">demonstrated by professional pilots</a>.</p>
<h4>&#8216;Angel was next&#8217;</h4>
<p>World public opinion is also directed to believe that a Boeing 757 – with a wingspan of 38 meters – managed to penetrate the Pentagon through a six-meter-wide hole and at the height of the first floor. A Boeing 757 with landing gear is 13 meters high. Airliners electronically refuse to crash – so it’s quite a feat to convince one to fly five to 10 meters above the ground, landing gear on, at a lightning speed of 800 kilometers an hour.</p>
<p>According to the official narrative, the Boeing 757 literally pulverized itself. Yet even after pulverization, it managed to perforate six walls of three rings of the Pentagon, leaving a two-meter wide hole in the last wall but only slightly damaging the second and third rings. The official narrative is that the hole was caused by the plane’s nose – still quite hard even after pulverization. Yet the rest of the plane – a mass of 100 tons traveling at 800 kilometers an hour – miraculously stopped at the first ring.</p>
<p>All that happened under the stewardship of one Hani Hanjour, who three weeks before had been judged by his flight instructors to be incapable of piloting a Cessna. Hanjour, nonetheless, managed to accomplish an ultra-fast spiral descent at 270 degrees, aligning at a maximum 10 meters above ground, minutely calibrating the trajectory, and keeping a cruise speed of roughly 800 kilometers an hour.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379118" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-379118" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Rumsfeld-and-Pentagon-image.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Rumsfeld-and-Pentagon-image.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Rumsfeld-and-Pentagon-image-768x492.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Rumsfeld-and-Pentagon-image-1568x1004.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers, left, and US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld brief reporters at the Pentagon on Oct. 8, 2001 following the US bombing raids on Afghanistan in response to 9/11 attacks. Photo: AFP / Luke Frazza</figcaption></figure>
<p>At 9.37am, Hanjour hit precisely the Pentagon’s budget analysts’ office, where everyone was busy working on the mysterious disappearance of no less than <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=88&amp;v=xU4GdHLUHwU">$2.3 trillion</a> that Defense Secretary Donald “Known Unknowns” Rumsfeld, in a press conference the day before, said could not be tracked. So, it’s not only Boeings that get pulverized inside the Pentagon.</p>
<p>World public opinion is also directed to believe that Newtonian physics was suspended as a special bonus for WTC 1 and 2 on 9/11 (not to mention <a href="https://www.ae911truth.org/images/PDFs/WTC7-YouGov-Survey-Sept-2019.pdf">WTC 7</a>, which was not even hit by any plane). The slower WTC tower took 10 seconds to fall 411 meters, starting from immobility. So it fell at 148 kilometers an hour. Considering the initial acceleration time, it was a free fall, not the least impeded by 47 massive, vertical steel beams that composed the tower’s structural heart.</p>
<p>World public opinion is also directed to believe that United Airlines Flight 93 – 150 tons of aircraft with 45 people, 200 seats, luggage, a wingspan of 38 meters – crashed in a field in Pennsylvania and also literally pulverized itself, totally disappearing inside a hole six meters by three meters wide and only two meters deep.</p>
<p>Suddenly, Air Force One was <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/were-the-only-plane-in-the-sky-214230?fbclid=IwAR0hmFDFqmBkWijvNH1DM74nyEGMUnfigJ_2IXg9fc_msfnNRrXJNabI-sk">&#8220;the only plane in the sky.&#8221;</a> Colonel Mark Tillman, who was on board, recalled: “We get this report that there’s a call saying ‘Angel&#8217; was next. No one really knows now where the comment came from – it got mistranslated or garbled amid the White House, the Situation Room, the radio operators. ‘Angel’ was our code name. The fact that they knew about &#8216;Angel,&#8217; well, you had to be in the inner circle.”</p>
<p>This means that 19 Arabs with box cutters, and most of all their handlers, surely must have been &#8220;in the inner circle.&#8221; Inevitably, this was never fully investigated.</p>
<p>Already in 1997, Brzezinski had warned, “it is imperative that no Eurasian challenger emerges capable of dominating Eurasia and thus of also challenging America.”</p>
<p>In the end, much to the despair of US neocons, all the combined sound and fury of 9/11 and the Global War on Terror/Overseas Contingency Operations, in less than two decades, ended up metastasized into not only a challenger but a Russia-China strategic partnership. This is the real “enemy” – not al-Qaeda, a flimsy figment of the CIA’s imagination, rehabilitated and sanitized as “moderate rebels” in Syria.</p>
The grounding of full-service carrier Jet Airways and limited capacity addition by other airlines will push up ticket prices by 9% this fiscal year
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/flying-in-india-hold-onto-your-wallet/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/flying-in-india-hold-onto-your-wallet/<p>The price-sensitive Indian air passenger will have to shell out more this fiscal year as fares are expected to rise due to limited capacity addition and the grounding of full service carrier Jet Airways with its fleet of 119 aircraft.</p>
<p>Rating agency Crisil Research says ticket prices are expected to rise 7-9% during the period, the highest since 2013, when another popular airline, Kingfisher, was grounded, <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/airfares-set-to-rise-7-9-as-jet-airways-crisis-squeezes-capacity-additions-119091101223_1.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Press Trust of India</a> reports.</p>
<p>The agency has forecast that the growth of air passenger traffic within the country will be subdued, at 6-8% in this fiscal year, as against a robust 19% in the year ended March 2019.</p>
<p>In addition to the Jet Airways crisis, the global grounding of Boeing 737 Max aircraft since March, following two fatal crashes, has also hampered aircraft availability. Budget carrier SpiceJet was badly hit as it had 12 Boeing 737 Max aircraft in its fleet.</p>
<p>If Boeing 737 Max planes are allowed to fly later in the year it may help increase the air passenger growth by up to 1%, the agency opined.</p>
<p>As for capacity addition, the rating agency said it will be brought in mainly by low-cost carriers such as SpiceJet and IndiGo. The two airlines are expected to post strong double-digit growth of 25-30% in passenger traffic for fiscal year 2020, the agency added.</p>
<p>Crisil expects domestic passenger load factor for the industry to remain flat at around 86% in fiscal 2020. This is a metric that measures how much of an airlines passenger-carrying capacity is used.</p>
<p>The rating agency claimed that an increase in fares and a likely robust growth in passenger traffic will improve the account books of budget carriers. It expects the EBITDAR (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and restructuring or rent costs) margin to rebound to 24-25% this fiscal year from 15-16% in fiscal 2019.</p>
<p><strong>Also Read: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/05/article/indian-air-passenger-traffic-drops-in-april/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indian air passenger traffic drops in April</a></strong></p>
Defense pact invocation leaves it unclear to what extent hawkish aide’s departure changes Trump foreign policy
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/bolton-gone-but-lets-get-tough-with-venezuela/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/bolton-gone-but-lets-get-tough-with-venezuela/<p>Do we already have an answer to the question whether US foreign policy will become less conflict-prone now that John Bolton is gone?</p>
<p>The United States invoked a regional defense pact Wednesday with 10 other countries and Venezuela&#8217;s opposition after &#8220;bellicose&#8221; moves by Nicolas Maduro&#8217;s regime. A request to invoke the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR) came from the Venezuelan opposition, said a statement from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, retweeted early Thursday by President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>&#8220;Recent bellicose moves by the Venezuelan military to deploy along the border with Colombia as well as the presence of illegal armed groups and terrorist organizations in Venezuelan territory demonstrate that Nicolas Maduro not only poses a threat to the Venezuelan people, his actions threaten the peace and security of Venezuela’s neighbors,&#8221; Pompeo said.</p>
<p>This news – if the term may be used for tweeted middle-of-the-DC-night vagueness – comes just one day after the exit of John Bolton as US national security advisor removed the most forceful voice pushing Trump&#8217;s foreign policy to the right.</p>
<p>Bolton was among the few officials who mused about a military response in Venezuela, where Trump has been unsuccessfully seeking to remove leftist leader Maduro.</p>
<p>Trump has spoken little in recent weeks on Venezuela and reportedly grew upset with Bolton for predicting a quick toppling of Maduro.</p>
<p>Venezuela was thrust into a political crisis in January when opposition leader Guaido declared himself acting president, in a direct challenge to Maduro&#8217;s authority over the country from which millions have fled economic deprivation.</p>
<p>The opposition has branded the socialist leader a &#8220;usurper&#8221; over his re-election last year in a poll widely viewed as rigged.</p>
<p>Pompeo said in the statement that invoking the TIAR is &#8220;recognition of the increasingly destabilizing influence&#8221; the Maduro regime has in the region.</p>
<p>&#8220;Catastrophic economic policies and political repression continue to drive this unprecedented refugee crisis, straining the ability of governments to respond,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;We look forward to further high-level discussions with fellow TIAR parties, as we come together to collectively address the urgent crisis raging within Venezuela and spilling across its border through the consideration of multilateral economic and political options.&#8221;</p>
<p>On Tuesday Venezuela&#8217;s armed forces chiefs said they had begun mobilizing 150,000 troops for military exercises on the Colombian border, after accusing Colombia of plotting to spark a military conflict.</p>
<p>Last week Maduro said Colombia was using the rejection by dissident FARC leaders of a peace accord to try to provoke a military conflict, and said he was placing his forces on high alert.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Colombia&#8217;s right-wing President Ivan Duque had accused Maduro of sheltering FARC dissidents.</p>
<p>Venezuela&#8217;s National Assembly – which Guaido leads – in July decided to re-join the TIAR, which could provide a legal framework for foreign military intervention. But the country&#8217;s Supreme Court annulled the decision to join.</p>
<p>Guaido is backed by more than 50 nations, including the United States and many others in the TIAR, which was originally ratified by 23 countries at the start of the Cold War.</p>
<p>Five of those – at the time all under leftist governments – left in 2012, while Mexico distanced itself in 2004.</p>
<p>Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela withdrew over Washington&#8217;s refusal to take Argentina&#8217;s side in 1982 after it invaded the British-ruled Falkland Islands – claiming American inaction meant the pact was meaningless.</p>
<p>Despite US backing Guaido has failed to dislodge Maduro, who still enjoys support from Russia, China, and Cuba as well as Venezuela&#8217;s military leadership.</p>
<h4>&#8216;Not smart&#8217;</h4>
<p>The Pompeo-Trump announcement left unclear whether, in the longer term, the administration&#8217;s preferred balance between talks and military moves has changed with Bolton&#8217;s exit.</p>
<p>Bolton&#8217;s worldview overlapped in some areas with Trump&#8217;s, especially in their &#8220;America First&#8221; contempt for international organizations. But the mogul-turned-president has long called for fewer military interventions overseas and singled out Bolton&#8217;s strident comments on North Korea as an area of disagreement.</p>
<p>Bolton had cited the &#8220;Libyan model&#8221; for North Korea, a reference to a denuclearization deal with its dictator Moamer Kadhafi – who was captured and tortured to death after being deposed in a Western-backed revolt in 2011.</p>
<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s not a question of being tough, that&#8217;s a question of being not smart,&#8221; Trump told reporters Wednesday, saying he didn&#8217;t blame North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un for being upset.</p>
<p>Bolton, a 70-year-old master of Washington infighting, succeeded in championing hawkish stances on Venezuela and Iran and pressing Trump to hold back from an accord with North Korea at a February summit.</p>
<p>He had pressed Trump only to accept a more stringent nuclear deal with North Korea, which famously once branded Bolton &#8220;human scum&#8221; for his hard line.</p>
<p>&#8220;Bolton&#8217;s exit may lead to a more realistic, step-by-step approach to North Korean denuclearization, where Bolton&#8217;s &#8216;all-or-nothing&#8217; approach to easing sanctions has produced a deadlock despite three Trump-Kim summits,&#8221; said Alexander Vershbow, a former US ambassador to South Korea and Russia.</p>
<h4>Replacement possibilities</h4>
<p>Trump has promised a replacement next week and that choice – along with how the Venezuela matter plays out – could signal the shape of his foreign policy for the rest of his term.</p>
<p>Will Trump pick another hardliner, albeit one who is more congenial? Or will he choose a more traditional figure such as Bolton&#8217;s predecessor, military scholar HR McMaster?</p>
<p>Or could Trump go in a third direction in his third year in office, finding a libertarian-minded critic of foreign wars along the lines of Republican Senator Rand Paul?</p>
<p>&#8220;The threat of war around the world has been greatly diminished with John Bolton out of the White House,&#8221; crowed Paul, an advocate of pulling troops from Afghanistan and diplomacy with Iran.</p>
<p>Bolton, however, had staunch defenders among more bellicose Republicans. Senator Ted Cruz asked if &#8220;deep-state&#8221; bureaucrats &#8220;have finally convinced the president to go soft on Iran.&#8221;</p>
<p>Bolton&#8217;s departure, and signs he intends to be outspoken from outside the White House, &#8220;sets the stage for a GOP civil war over foreign policy,&#8221; wrote Brookings Institution senior fellow Tom Wright, referring to the Republican Party.</p>
<h4>Pompeo in lead</h4>
<p>For now, Bolton&#8217;s departure leaves foreign policy in the hands of the secretary of state, who shares hawkish views on Iran and other key issues.</p>
<p>But unlike Bolton, Pompeo is widely seen as holding future political ambitions and is careful never to show any daylight with Trump.</p>
<p>Mindful that he is up for re-election next year, Trump for months has &#8220;wanted to pivot to striking deals with America&#8217;s enemies&#8221; including Iran, Afghanistan&#8217;s Taliban, North Korea and even Russia, Wright said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Pompeo was willing to accept this to shape it. Bolton was not and sought to sabotage it,&#8221; Wright wrote on Twitter.</p>
<p>Trump has voiced willingness to meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the UN General Assembly in New York later this month after France launched a bid to ease tensions.</p>
<p>Rouhani says he will only consider a meeting if the United States removes sanctions, a prospect that is anathema for Bolton, who is close to Iran&#8217;s opposition militants and in the past has called for military force and regime change.</p>
<p>Asked after Bolton&#8217;s departure if Trump could meet Rouhani, Pompeo – who for months has rarely missed an opportunity to bash Iran – was strikingly upbeat.</p>
<p>&#8220;Sure,&#8221; Pompeo replied. &#8220;The president has made very clear he is prepared to meet with no preconditions.&#8221;</p>
<p>Vershbow, now at the Atlantic Council, feared that, without Bolton&#8217;s influence, Trump could curtail military support for Ukraine as he curries favor with Russian President Vladimir Putin.</p>
<p>Democrats universally rejoiced at Bolton&#8217;s departure, while saying he should never have had the job.</p>
<p>&#8220;The only question about his replacement is the same after all Trump resignations,&#8221; said Representative Adam Schiff. &#8220;Will we go from bad to worse?&#8221;</p>
<p><em>-Reporting by AFP-</em></p>
Beijing says Hong Kong should take a leading role in the Belt and Road and Greater Bay Area schemes
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/leaders-tout-hk-advantages-at-bri-summit/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/leaders-tout-hk-advantages-at-bri-summit/<p>&#8220;The spirit of Hong Kong&#8221; will help the city find its way back to the social stability essential to its long-term prosperity, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said in an opening speech at the fourth Belt and Road Summit.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379063" style="width: 320px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class=" wp-image-379063" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Carrie-Lam-BR-Summit_govt02.jpg" alt="" width="320" height="240" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Carrie-Lam-BR-Summit_govt02.jpg 1280w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Carrie-Lam-BR-Summit_govt02-768x576.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam. Photo: HK Govt</figcaption></figure>
<p>“My fervent hope is that we can bridge our divide,” Lam said. “By steadfastly upholding the One Country, Two Systems principle and the Basic Law, and through the concerted efforts of the government and the people of Hong Kong, we can find our way back to reasoned discussion, to the social stability essential to the long-term stability and prosperity and well-being of us all.</p>
<p>“Hong Kong, after all, has been built, and rebuilt, time and again, on our indomitable resilience. Call it the spirit of Hong Kong, and know that it will see us through. It will ensure that we also find our place – and help you find yours – along the Belt and Road,” she said.</p>
<p>The connectivity and cooperation promoted by the Belt and Road has become increasingly prominent in today&#8217;s complex social and business environment, Lam said, adding that Hong Kong – China&#8217;s most competitive and international city – will play a significant role in complementing this strategic direction.</p>
<p>Hong Kong can create opportunities in capacity building, green finance, professional services and business matching, she said.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379071" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-379071" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Business-matching_3.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Business-matching_3.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Business-matching_3-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Business-matching_3-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Business-matching_3-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Business-matching_3-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Business matching during the Belt and Road Summit. Photo: B&amp;R Summit</figcaption></figure>
<p>Protests were sparked in Hong Kong after the city&#8217;s government sought to amend the extradition bill in early June so certain individuals can be tried on the mainland. However, the move generated intense public opposition and police have become embroiled in the crisis, slammed for using excessive force against protesters while the latter have been strongly criticized for clashes with officers and vandalizing public facilities.</p>
<p>On September 4, Lam announced that her administration would completely withdraw the bill but protests have continued, as other key demands have yet to be met.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379060" style="width: 323px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class=" wp-image-379060" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Paul-Chan-Mo-po.jpg" alt="" width="323" height="242" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Paul-Chan-Mo-po.jpg 1280w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Paul-Chan-Mo-po-768x576.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 323px) 100vw, 323px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po. Photo: HK Govt</figcaption></figure>
<p>Hong Kong&#8217;s Financial Secretary, Paul Chan Mo-po, who spoke at the opening of the two-day summit on Wednesday, said the ongoing social unrest has not affected the city’s core competencies, which include its rule of law, freedom of speech, a simple and low-tax economic system, plus an independent judiciary and a free-flow of capital, goods, information and people.</p>
<p>Chan said the Hong Kong government would continue its dialogue with the public and eventually overcome the challenges.</p>
<p>Nearly 5,000 participants from over 60 countries and regions have attended the Belt and Road Summit, which is being held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center. The participants include business leaders and state officials, investors and project owners, academics and researchers, heads of non-government groups and international institutions.</p>
<p>The main theme of this year&#8217;s summit is &#8220;<a href="http://www.beltandroadsummit.hk/en/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Creating and Realizing Opportunities</a>.” It suggests that Hong Kong is perfectly positioned to serve as a gateway for the Belt and Road scheme and its many prospects and possibilities.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379053" style="width: 323px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class=" wp-image-379053" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Foreign-Affair-Ministry-Xie-Feng.jpg" alt="" width="323" height="242" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Foreign-Affair-Ministry-Xie-Feng.jpg 1280w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Foreign-Affair-Ministry-Xie-Feng-768x576.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 323px) 100vw, 323px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Xie Feng, Commissioner of China&#8217;s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong. Photo: RTHK</figcaption></figure>
<p>Xie Feng, commissioner at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Hong Kong, said the Belt and Road plan is a necessary path. Hong Kong should set aside disputes in its society and grab the opportunity to contribute to the Belt and Road Initiative, he said. If the opportunity is lost, there will not be another one, he added.</p>
<p>The One Country, Two Systems policy is the biggest advantage for the development of Hong Kong, but China has also reserved a “priority seat” for the city to take a leading role in both BRI and the Greater Bay Area scheme.</p>
<p>Hong Kong should make use of the foundation of “One Country” policy and the advantages of “Two Systems” to benefit from new rounds of economic reform and opening-up in China, he said.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379056" style="width: 324px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class=" wp-image-379056" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Wang-Bingnan.jpg" alt="" width="324" height="243" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Wang-Bingnan.jpg 1280w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Wang-Bingnan-768x576.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 324px) 100vw, 324px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Wang Bingnan, China&#8217;s Vice Minister of Commerce. Photo: RTHK</figcaption></figure>
<p>With a special status and many unique advantages in talents, professional services and global commerce, Hong Kong is an important international finance, trade and logistics hub, Wang Bingnan, China&#8217;s Vice Minister of Commerce, said.</p>
<p>Hong Kong can benefit from the new opportunities in China and enjoy faster growth within the country’s development plan, he said. The Commerce Ministry will continue to support Hong Kong’s participation in the Greater Bay Area, he said, which is a core part of the Belt and Road Initiative.</p>
<p>China will further open up for Hong Kong’s service sectors under the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) framework and allow Hong Kong to take part in cooperation agreements between China and Belt and Road countries, Wang said.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379073" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-379073" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/BR-Summit03.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/BR-Summit03.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/BR-Summit03-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/BR-Summit03-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/BR-Summit03-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/BR-Summit03-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">China will further open up for Hong Kong&#8217;s professional service sectors. Photo: B&amp;R Summit</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_379074" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-379074" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Project-pitching_1.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Project-pitching_1.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Project-pitching_1-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Project-pitching_1-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Project-pitching_1-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Project-pitching_1-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Project pitching during the Belt and Road Summit. Photo: B&amp;R Summit</figcaption></figure>
<p><strong>Read</strong>: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/fitch-downgrades-hong-kong-as-rallies-drag-on/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fitch downgrades Hong Kong as rallies drag on</a></p>
<p><strong>Read</strong>: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hong-kong-stocks-surge-after-extradition-bill-withdrawal-reports/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HK leader withdraws hated extradition bill</a></p>
New president has been wooed by Beijing while deals in pork and soybeans have soared amid trade war and swine fever woes
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/brazil-gaining-from-chinas-revenge-embargoes/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/brazil-gaining-from-chinas-revenge-embargoes/<p>Rightwing populist Jair Bolsonaro became President of Brazil on January 1 brimming with disdain and angst over Chinese business and investment in his country.</p>
<p>During the election campaign last year he lashed out at the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for “not buying from Brazil as much as buying Brazil itself.” And Bolsonaro even lobbed the ultimate insult at Beijing by visiting Taiwan during the campaign.</p>
<p>At one point Bolsonaro even mused out loud about cancelling the scheduled November summit in Brasilia of the BRICS emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – largely to rebuff Beijing.</p>
<p>But if a week is a lifetime in politics, nine months are an eternity. Since taking the presidency Bolsonaro has reversed course entirely and now seems set on making Brazil a breadbasket for the PRC and its 1.4 billion people.</p>
<p>While Bolsonaro’s increasingly intense economic relationship with the PRC may well benefit Brazilian workers and fill Chinese stomachs, it may not be good news for the Amazon rainforest and, ultimately, the 20% of the world’s oxygen supply generated by its trees. The trade in meat and grains with China will undoubtedly stimulate the already rampant campaign of deforestation to create agricultural land.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379367" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-379367" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Brazilian-iron-ore-in-China.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="682" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Brazilian-iron-ore-in-China.jpg 1024w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Brazilian-iron-ore-in-China-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A vessel arrives at the port of Ningbo-Zhoushan in east China&#8217;s Zhejiang province carrying iron ore from Brazil in this file pic from 2018. Trade in pork and soybeans between the two countries has also soared. Photo: AFP</figcaption></figure>
<p>Bolsonaro’s change of heart towards the PRC undoubtedly came soon after he took office and digested the reality that China is Brazil’s largest trade partner, with $US100 billion in bilateral commerce, and takes a quarter of Brazil’s exports. Most of those are low value-added commodities like soybeans, meat and iron ore.</p>
<h4>Charm offensive</h4>
<p>Beijing has been aware for years of the importance of Brazil, not only as a source of commodities, but as a gateway into Latin America. So a charm offensive was deployed, and in June there was a strong indication that it had paid off.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379365" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-379365" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Wang-in-Brasilia-e1568274508385.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1064" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Wang-in-Brasilia-e1568274508385.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Wang-in-Brasilia-e1568274508385-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Wang-in-Brasilia-e1568274508385-1568x1043.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">China&#8217;s Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrives at Itamaraty Palace in Rio de Janeiro on July 26, 2019. Ministers of the BRICS nations met ahead of the 11th summit in November 2019 in Brasilia. Photo: Mauro Pimental / AFP</figcaption></figure>
<p>In a recent essay the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation points to Brazil’s support in June for the Chinese candidate, Qu Dongyu, to head the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization as the turning point. The foundation says Brazil’s move was telling because Qu’s competition was French, and Brazil along with other South American countries are finalizing free-trade talks with the European Union.</p>
<p>Bolsonaro’s skepticism about PRC business and investment appear to have disappeared completely, along with his doubts about hosting the BRICS summit. Not only is that firmly on for November, but China’s President Xi Jinping is scheduled to attend, and Bolsonaro may visit Beijing between now and then.</p>
<p>As a taste of things to come, Beijing’s agriculture ministry announced this week that it has authorized a further 25 Brazilian meatpacking plants to export to China, in addition to the 53 already approved.</p>
<h4>Pork, a symbolic legitimacy index</h4>
<p>Beijing has some important political objectives at home in making this opening. The PRC is set to have a shortfall of 10 million tonnes of domestically produced pork this year because of an outbreak of African swine fever. This has hit every province since last year and required the culling of the national pig herd by one third.</p>
<p>But Chinese people have become accustomed to eating pork as a staple of a rich diet unimagined by their parents and grandparents. Chinese people ate about half the world’s production of pork in 2018, but over 95% of that was produced in China before the swine fever hit.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379335" style="width: 1527px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-379335" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Chinese-Pigs-e1555587155715.jpg" alt="" width="1527" height="945" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Chinese-Pigs-e1555587155715.jpg 1527w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Chinese-Pigs-e1555587155715-768x475.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1527px) 100vw, 1527px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Brazil is benefiting from the swine fever outbreak that has ravaged China&#8217;s production of pork. Photo: AFP / Greg Baker</figcaption></figure>
<p>To a significant degree the availability of affordable pork has become a symbol of the political legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). And thus there could not be a worse time politically for a pork shortage and dramatic increases in price of what is available than the run-up to next month’s 70th anniversary of the founding of the PRC.</p>
<p>The CCP has tied its own hands and limited some other sources of replacement pork. Beijing has imposed a 72% tariff on pork imports from the United States. This embargo is a skirmish in the trade war with Washington and is purposefully targeted at farmers in regions that voted for Donald Trump in 2016.</p>
<h4>Revenge embargo</h4>
<p>Another revenge embargo is against Canada, for whom China is the largest export market for pork by volume, though not value. That goes to Japan, which buys the expensive cuts. Beijing’s ban on pork imports from Canada is an attempt to apply pressure over the detention of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, under an extradition request issued by the US Department of Justice.</p>
<p>European pigs are filling some of China’s shortfall, but there is African swine fever in Europe as there is in much of Southeast Asia. So fever-free Brazil is an obvious source, and sales of pork to China have grown by around 80% in the last three months.</p>
<p>Now that Bolsonaro has changed his tune about the PRC, the relationship is set to pick up where it left off under Brazil’s past left-wing administrations.</p>
<p>Beijing and its corporate offshoots like the globe-trotting China Communications Construction Company are already involved in Belt and Road Initiative-style infrastructure investment in Brazil.</p>
<p>What is notable, however, is that like the BRI projects across Asia, those in Brazil are aimed at getting the country’s commodities on ships to China.</p>
<h4>Railroads, port in Sao Luis</h4>
<p>China Communications is already involved in building railroads to transport grain and the company is currently building a port in the northern city of Sao Luis.</p>
<p>A question now is how much investment and grip on Brazil’s infrastructure and commodities trade Bolsonaro will be able to absorb before he feels forced into a nationalistic backlash.</p>
<p>Assessing the situation recently, Oxford Analytica, the global risk assessment company, noted: “Even if relations with Beijing continue reasonably unscathed, Bolsonaro’s government lacks a China strategy. It also has no clear plan to adapt Brazil to a world in which Chinese growth is slower and more focused on domestic consumption, and hence less dependent on Brazilian export to the Asian giant.”</p>
<p>So perhaps the hope must be that Bolsonaro does not promote the removal of the entire Brazilian Amazon rainforest, which provides 20% of the world’s oxygen, before it becomes clear to him that there is a limit to China’s thirst for commodities.</p>
<p>jonathan.manthorpe@gmail.com</p>
Health risk to residents as chemicals found in some areas two to three weeks after police fired tear gas there
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/tear-gas-residue-found-in-many-areas-of-hk/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/tear-gas-residue-found-in-many-areas-of-hk/<p>Tear gas residue has been found in six areas of Hong Kong, in some places two to three weeks after it was used by police, posing health risks to residents.</p>
<p>A team of 30 chemical engineers voluntarily conducted surveys in six tear gas-affected districts and found CS gas residue on various surfaces. Hong Kong police started using tear gas to disperse protesters in June.</p>
<p>The team collected samples from 200 objects at 75 sites in Admiralty, Sheung Wan and Sai Ying Pun on Hong Kong, Kowloon Bay and Sham Shui Po in Kowloon as well as in Tsuen Wan in the New Territories from August 18.</p>
<p>After laboratory tests, they found residual amounts of two chemicals used to make tear gas on streets, the walls of buildings, footbridges and around residential buildings.</p>
<p>Five places in Admiralty and Sai Ying Pun were found to have chemical residue two to three weeks after tear gas was used, and some residue was found on an apartment window and on furniture placed near the window.</p>
<p>A sample collected at the intersection of Des Voeux West Road and Sutherland Street showed residue 21 days after police fired tear gas there. Reports said 408 tear gas canisters were fired in Sheung Wan during clashes between police and protesters on July 28.</p>
<p>If police fire tear gas in a district with narrow streets, due to low ventilation, the chemicals stay longer. The team found residue on nearby streets and at the entrance to a home for the elderly in Sham Shui Po where police fired 35 rounds of tear gas on Yen Chow Street on August 14.</p>
<p>Over the past three months, Hong Kong police have used a total of 3,060 tear gas canisters to disperse protesters during clearance operations, the Ming Pao Daily reported.</p>
<p>Lee Ho-wun, who led the team doing the survey, said the results were inconsistent with police claims that residue only lasts for a short time.</p>
<p>Lee also said the team found chemical residue under a bicycle footbridge in Tsuen Wan Park close to a children’s playground. The park was 250 meters from the site of a major clash on Yeung Uk Road.</p>
<p>Tear gas irritates the eyes, nose, mouth and lungs, causing symptoms such as crying, sneezing, coughing, breathing difficulties, eye pain and temporary blindness. It can also cause chemical burns to exposed skin and set off allergies.</p>
<p>A clinic in Sai Wan said one week after clashes on July 28, about 10 adults and elderly people sought medical treatment due to allergies and respiratory infections, the Hong Kong Economic Times reported.</p>
<p>The team urged police to use less tear gas and to properly handle the casings of the tear gas canisters. They also urged authorities and the relevant departments to test for residue in possibly contaminated areas and to clean the areas thoroughly.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, US lawmakers and members of the House of Representatives Jim McGovern and Chris Smith introduced <a href="https://mcgovern.house.gov/uploadedfiles/hk_protect_act_final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a bill</a> to halt the sales of crowd-control equipment from US companies to Hong Kong police.</p>
<p>“I am deeply concerned that American-made police equipment is being used to violently crack down on peaceful protesters in Hong Kong,” said McGovern in a <a href="https://mcgovern.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398392" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a>.</p>
<p>“Hong Kong police are targeting their own citizens who are guilty of nothing more than peacefully protesting government threats to their freedoms and liberties,” Representative Smith said.</p>
<p>They cited journalists and citizens who had provided credible evidence showing that the Hong Kong police force had used tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, batons and other crowd control equipment against peaceful protesters in violation of manufacturer guidelines and international standards.</p>
<p>Some of the equipment used by Hong Kong police had been supplied by US companies.</p>
<p>But a spokesperson for a junior police officers’ union said the bill, if passed, would only have a minimal effect, the <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3026802/very-minimal-effect-hong-kong-whether-us-lawmakers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">South China Morning Post reported.</a></p>
<p>Other police sources quoted by the newspaper said the force had no shortage of equipment and could buy from other countries if the US bill passed.</p>
<p>Local media earlier reported that the police force had purchased 500 sets of protective gear from mainland China.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/will-hk-police-have-to-buy-tear-gas-from-china/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read: Will HK police have to buy tear gas from China?</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/excessive-use-of-tear-gas-poses-public-health-risk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read: Excessive use of tear gas poses public health risk</a></p>
Long-delayed and in doubt, the privatization of the kingdom’s biggest asset looks to be back in focus
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/saudi-shakeup-suggests-aramco-ipo-barreling-ahead/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/saudi-shakeup-suggests-aramco-ipo-barreling-ahead/<p>Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has signaled he will not be deterred in his quest for the largest IPO in history, unceremoniously sidelining the country&#8217;s energy minister over the weekend and putting trusted allies in his place.</p>
<p>Khalid al-Falih, who last week oversaw not only the Ministry of Energy and Industries but also Saudi Aramco, at first lost the state oil company and industry portfolios, and days later the ministry itself. He was not conferred a conciliatory advisory role.</p>
<p>Yasir al-Rumayyan, the man at the helm of Saudi Arabia&#8217;s Public Investment Fund, will now also head Saudi Aramco – the state oil giant whose partial privatization will benefit the fund.</p>
<p>The PIF, with investments ranging from the ride-hailing app Uber to the Saudi petrochemicals company Sabiq, is the vehicle by which Mohammed bin Salman hopes to fund his overhaul of the kingdom&#8217;s economy and diversify it away from crude.</p>
<p>Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, an elder son of the king and half-brother of the crown prince, has been accorded the post of Minister of Energy, a first for a royal in the kingdom&#8217;s history.</p>
<p>Well-regarded as a veteran of the ministry and OPEC delegations past with deep knowledge of oil markets, he is seen as the ideal compromise candidate for the royal court – his professional reputation offsetting questions over obvious family ties.</p>
<p>The sudden shakeups, however, ultimately reflect the ambitions of the crown prince, who wants the IPO by early 2021.</p>
<h4>MBS consolidates</h4>
<p>For Karen Young of the American Enterprise Institute, the elevation of PIF chief Rumayyan and Prince Abdulaziz are &#8220;directly related to the twin goals of the IPO and capital raising for the expanded role of the PIF in national development projects.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;The Saudi economy is now more state-controlled, consolidated in management than in its recent past,&#8221; she told Asia Times. The driver, she adds, is MBS.</p>
<p>John Sfakianakis, chief economist at the Gulf Research Center in Riyadh, says the appointment of Public Investment Fund chief Rumayyan to the top post at Aramco will strengthen the PIF&#8217;s control over the state oil giant in the run-up to its public offering.</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">&#8220;It </span><span class="s1">facilitates communication within one institution, rather than going through Aramco. </span><span class="s1">Obviously it gives them a stronger control over the activities of Aramco, the board, and more directly the IPO itself,&#8221; he said. </span></p>
<p>Sfakianakis says he does not believe the personnel changes will necessarily make the IPO go faster, but &#8220;the policy is to push ahead.&#8221;</p>
<p>The kingdom has shortlisted JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and its own National Commercial Bank for lead roles, while Citi, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and Samba Financial may also be accorded managing roles, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-aramco-ipo-roles/saudi-aramco-likely-to-give-ipo-roles-to-citi-goldman-hsbc-and-samba-source-idUSKCN1VT0QQ?il=0">Reuters reported</a> on Sunday.</p>
<p>Key questions remain, however, namely where Saudi Aramco would be listed and how it will be valued. The kingdom is reportedly pressuring its richest families to commit to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-09/saudi-arabia-said-to-tap-kingdom-s-richest-to-anchor-aramco-ipo">serving as anchor investors</a> ahead of the sale, Bloomberg said Monday.</p>
<p>While US President Donald Trump had publicly pushed for a New York Stock Exchange listing, an ongoing lawsuit launched by victims and first responders of 9/11 against the Saudi government creates a major potential liability there.</p>
<p>Brexit uncertainties in London and upheaval in Hong Kong have also warranted caution on the part of the Saudis, elevating the potential of previously under-explored venues like Tokyo for a listing.</p>
<p>Another key factor for the timing of an Aramco IPO – which the crown prince has said should be valued at more than US$2 trillion – will be the state of the oil market.</p>
<h4>Raising the barrel</h4>
<p>The task of ratcheting up the flagging price of oil, long wavering below $60 per barrel, has been publicly noted as an expectation for the incoming energy minister.</p>
<p>&#8220;One of the first tasks the new minister faces is what to do about the global oil glut,&#8221; read a Monday opinion column in the Arab News, a Riyadh-based newspaper closely aligned to the views of the royal court.</p>
<p>&#8220;OPEC oil ministers are this week meeting with their non-OPEC counterparts in Abu Dhabi to discuss why prices remain stubbornly low despite big output cuts by the OPEC+ group and supply reductions in Venezuela, Libya and Iran,&#8221; it continued.</p>
<p><span class="s1">The Saudi budget, Sfakianakis noted, demands a much higher price – closer to $80 per barrel.<br />
</span></p>
<p>But the sweet spot is more likely somewhere in between, a price that will not provoke the ire of President Trump while still allowing a higher valuation for Aramco and funding of Saudi domestic expenses.</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">&#8220;I think $60 okay, $65, but $70 probably not. Somewhere in the $60s is the sweet spot without getting too much attention,&#8221; said Sfakianakis. </span></p>
<p>In February this year, Trump tweeted his dissatisfaction as the price of Brent crude crept up toward the $68 mark.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Oil prices getting too high. OPEC, please relax and take it easy. World cannot take a price hike &#8211; fragile!</p>
<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1100002139282309121?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2019</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>In the aftermath of the Tweet, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/25/oil-falls-after-trump-says-prices-are-too-high-and-tells-opec-the-world-cannot-take-a-price-hike.html">prices tumbled 3%</a>.</p>
<p>Such a rapid reaction may be a thing of the past, however, as Saudi Arabia pursues its key national goals.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are unlikely to see such effective oil price movement by presidential tweet again,&#8221; Young told Asia Times.</p>
<p>Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz on Monday signaled that the kingdom would stick to longstanding global production cuts agreed by OPEC+ and even left the door open for additional curbs.</p>
<p>&#8220;Cutting output will benefit all members of OPEC,&#8221; he told the Saudi broadcaster Al-Arabiya, noting that certain member nations, which have continued pumping beyond their quota, would be asked to fall into line.</p>
On the outskirts of Yangon, a group of barefoot boys and girls find unity and respect through touch rugby
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/myanmars-dragons-dodge-cows-to-play-rugby/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/myanmars-dragons-dodge-cows-to-play-rugby/<p>Sidestepping cowpats and garbage, Myanmar&#8217;s only home-grown junior rugby side train on the outskirts of Yangon, preparing to take on children from the city&#8217;s well-heeled international schools.</p>
<p>When the Little Dragons aren&#8217;t running barefoot on the litter-strewn dirt, the makeshift field on the outskirts of Yangon is sometimes used as a cockfighting ring or a fairground.</p>
<p>But every Sunday, boys and girls aged five to 18 from Yangon&#8217;s North Dagon township can be seen playing touch rugby, an incongruous sight in a country where the sport is barely known – even though the first World Cup in Asia is due to kick-off in Japan next week.</p>
<p>As novice monks file past collecting alms, the players shoo away cantankerous cattle to begin warm-up drills under the tutelage of their coaches, a mix of locals and expatriates.</p>
<p>In the monsoon, the training ground is shin-deep in mud, but during the hot season, the surface is baked into an unyielding, crusty mosaic. Yet many of the Little Dragons play in bare feet.</p>
<p>Youth worker-turned-coach Aung Kyaw Lin, 24, helped set up the team four years ago to run alongside English and maths lessons, and workshops on fire safety and health.</p>
<p>&#8220;Children here used to spend their free time in gaming shops,&#8221; he says. &#8220;When they started playing rugby, they stopped arguing and worked together.&#8221;</p>
<p>Although the organizers ran out of funding to keep their education center going, the rugby continued.</p>
<p>Few women play sport in conservative Myanmar, yet half of the 40 or so Little Dragons are girls. Nann Shar Larr He&#8217;s older sister used to scold her for wanting to play with the boys, but now most of her family come to watch the training sessions.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378931" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-378931" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Myanmar-rugby-girls-e1568177283428.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1067" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Every Sunday, boys and girls aged five to 18 from Yangon&#8217;s North Dagon township play touch rugby. Photo: AFP/Sai Aung Main</figcaption></figure>
<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no difference between girls and boys when we play rugby,&#8221; the 15-year-old smiles.</p>
<p>As the only homegrown junior team in the country, the Little Dragons look to Yangon&#8217;s international schools for matches.</p>
<p>In May, they took part in Myanmar&#8217;s first junior tournament – partly played on a full-sized, artificial grass pitch at one of the schools. Out of 10 teams in each age group, Little Dragons sides finished second and third in the Under-14s and second in the Under-11s.</p>
<p>&#8220;These kids ran rings round them,&#8221; says coach Bradley Edwards.</p>
<p>One baffled team even tried removing their trainers to see if that was the key to the Little Dragons&#8217; agility – an experiment that lasted only a couple of minutes on the hot, rough surface.</p>
<p>&#8220;We felt like crying when they scored, but we just tried even harder,&#8221; says 12-year-old Dragon Kyaw Kyaw Lin.</p>
<p>The schools are helping out the team, donating second-hand trainers and sharing transport. But the Dragons are looking for sustained funding to support them and resurrect the now-closed education center.</p>
<p>An interested international sponsor backed away last year, concerned about Myanmar&#8217;s &#8220;political climate&#8221; – a reference to the global outcry triggered by the mass expulsion of Rohingya Muslims in 2017.</p>
<p>Edwards sees this as counter-productive, arguing that sport can be a unifying force. &#8220;There are so many things separating communities now in Myanmar and in rugby one of the key values is respect,&#8221; he says.</p>
<p>The next step is to introduce the players to rugby sevens – but fellow coach Josh Peck says they are eager for more. &#8220;These kids are fired-up and ready. They want to play (full) contact.&#8221;</p>
<p>– <em>AFP</em></p>
A tearful Ma dons guitar and rock star wig at gala for employees of the e-commerce giant he founded 20 years ago
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/ceo-jack-ma-bids-farewell-in-rock-star-style/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/ceo-jack-ma-bids-farewell-in-rock-star-style/<p>&#8220;The green mountain won&#8217;t change, the flowing water is endless. See you around!&#8221; Alibaba Founder Jack Ma told the 20th anniversary gala of the company as he officially stepped down as board chairman on Tuesday, which was also his 55-year-old birthday, SHINE reported.</p>
<p>&#8220;Today marks not my retirement, but the beginning of a new corporate governance scheme of Alibaba and the next stage of the company&#8217;s future development,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>The Hangzhou native, a former English teacher, said he had been preparing for this moment for 10 years, and he called on businesses to truly embrace sustainable development, inclusiveness and altruism, the three biggest factors for a successful business.</p>
<p>Instead of becoming a family business, or seeking a professional executive management team, he hopes to bring the company&#8217;s core values into its everyday operations and to seek team leaders that truly believe in the company&#8217;s core mission.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll be facing the biggest challenges in the next 30 years with new technology advances, artificial intelligence and we must remain optimistic and actively embrace the changes,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>A tearful Ma donned a guitar and a rock star wig at an event for thousands of employees of the e-commerce giant he founded 20 years ago in a small shared apartment in Hangzhou city, NDTV reported.</p>
<p>During a four hour celebration in an 80,000-capacity stadium, Alibaba&#8217;s billionaire executive chairman delivered on his promise of a year ago to hand over to CEO Daniel Zhang.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379194" style="width: 641px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-379194 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-11-at-11.23.03-AM.png" alt="" width="641" height="374" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Yesterday, which happened to be Teachers&#8217; Day and Jack Ma&#8217;s birthday, marked the end of an era as Ma stepped down as executive chairman of the e-commerce giant to pursue a still-unspecified future of teaching. Wire photo.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Costumed performers, some dancing to dubstep music and dressed in traditional Chinese dress, and singers paid tribute to Mr Ma&#8217;s reputation for dressing up and performing at big events, entering to a parade of floats representing Alibaba divisions such as shopping site Tmall and payment service Ant Financial.</p>
<p>&#8220;After tonight I will start a new life. I do believe the world is good, there are so many opportunities, and I love excitement so much, which is why I will retire early,&#8221; Ma said.</p>
<p>Ma was spotted at one point welling up with tears as staff put on skits and sang songs, prompting the topic &#8220;Jack Ma has cried&#8221; to trend on Chinese social media platform Weibo.</p>
<p>Toward the end of the ceremony, Ma, co-founder Lucy Peng, and CEO of Alibaba&#8217;s technology committee Wang Jian donned rock star-style leather jackets and wigs to perform Chinese pop songs. They were joined by co-founder Joe Tsai dressed in Marilyn Monroe style white dress and a blonde wig.</p>
<p>Zhang, also clad in rock star garb, then delivered a solo, having earlier said that Alibaba would keep investing in areas such as cloud computing.</p>
<p>Ma&#8217;s exit comes as Alibaba has grown to become Asia&#8217;s most valuable listed company, with a market capitalization of US$460 billion. It employs over 100,000 people, and has expanded into financial services, cloud computing and artificial intelligence.</p>
<p>Ma will remain a lifetime partner in the Alibaba Partnership and is a member of its partnership committee. He will be devoting more time to educational causes and charity.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Alibaba Group Holding&#8217;s fresh chairman has started off by mapping out his sensible plans for the nation&#8217;s tech behemoth, Yicai Global reported.</p>
<p>Alibaba hopes to serve more than 1 billion consumers worldwide and create more than 10 trillion yuan (over US$1.4 trillion) in gross merchandise volume in five years, Zhang said yesterday. The firm&#8217;s GMV rose by 19% to 5.7 trillion yuan in the fiscal year ended March 31.</p>
<p>Over the fiscal year 2020, which lasts till next March, Alibaba&#8217;s GMV will undoubtedly reach US$1 trillion, Zhang said. This would be a 17% increase from a previous fiscal year.</p>
<p>&#8220;We want our customers and partners to be better off than we are,&#8221; Zhang said, adding that the firm will spare no effort in completing Alibaba&#8217;s ecosystem because &#8220;only in this way, we can help all firms move toward a digitalized and smart future.&#8221;</p>
Scientists find a distant planet with Earth-like temperatures that could support life as we know it
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/waterworld-discovered-in-a-constellation-far-far-away/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/waterworld-discovered-in-a-constellation-far-far-away/<p class="p1">Water has been discovered for the first time in the atmosphere of a planet with Earth-like temperatures that could support life as we know it.</p>
<p class="p1">Unfortunately, it is 110 light-years away.</p>
<p class="p1">Eight times the mass of Earth and twice as big, K2-18b orbits in its star&#8217;s &#8220;habitable zone&#8221; at a distance, neither too far nor too close, where water can exist in liquid form, scientists revealed in the journal Nature Astronomy.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;This planet is the best candidate we have outside our solar system [in the search for signs of life],” Giovanna Tinetti, the co-author and astronomer at University College London, said.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;We cannot assume that it has oceans on the surface but it is a real possibility,” he said.</p>
<p class="p1">Of the more than 4,000 exoplanets detected to date, this is the first known to combine a rocky surface and an atmosphere with water.</p>
<p class="p1">Most of these planets with atmospheres are giant balls of gas, and the handful of rocky planets for which data is available seem to have no atmosphere at all.</p>
<p class="p1">Even if they did, most Earth-like planets are too far from their stars to have liquid water or so close that any H2O has evaporated.</p>
<h4>Space missions</h4>
<p class="p1">Discovered in 2015, K2-18b is one of hundreds of so-called &#8220;super-Earths&#8221; – planets with less than ten times the mass of ours – spotted by NASA&#8217;s Kepler spacecraft.</p>
<p class="p1">Future space missions are expected to detect hundreds more in the coming decades.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;Finding water in a potentially habitable world other than Earth is incredibly exciting,&#8221; said lead-author Angelos Tsiaras, also from the University College London.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;K2-18b is not &#8216;Earth 2.0&#8217;,&#8221; he said. &#8220;However, it brings us closer to answering the fundamental question: is the Earth unique?&#8221;</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/amOdtYv5G4E" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p class="p1">Working with spectroscopic data captured in 2016 and 2017 by the Hubble Space Telescope, Tsiaras and his team used open-source algorithms to analyze the starlight filtered through K2-18b&#8217;s atmosphere.</p>
<p class="p1">They found the unmistakable signature of water vapor. Exactly how much remains uncertain, but computer modeling suggested concentrations between 0.1 and 50%.</p>
<p class="p1">By comparison, the percentage of water vapor in Earth&#8217;s atmosphere varies between 0.2% above the poles and up to 4% in the tropics.</p>
<p class="p1">There was also evidence of hydrogen and helium as well. Nitrogen and methane may also be present but with current technology remain undetectable, the study said.</p>
<h4>Cloud coverage</h4>
<p class="p1">Further research will be able to determine the extent of cloud coverage and the percentage of water in the atmosphere.</p>
<p class="p1">Water is crucial in the search for life, in part because it carries oxygen.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;Life, as we know, is based on water,&#8221; Tinetti said.</p>
<p class="p1">K2-18b orbits a red dwarf star about 110 light-years distant – a million billion kilometres – in the Leo constellation of the Milky Way, and is probably bombarded by more destructive radiation than Earth.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;It is likely that this is the first of many discoveries of potentially habitable planets,&#8221; Ingo Waldmann, also from the University College London and another a co-author, said.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;This is not only because super-Earths like K2-18b are the most common planets in our galaxy, but also because red dwarfs – stars smaller than our Sun – are the most common stars.&#8221;</p>
<p class="p1">The new generation of space-based star gazing instruments led by the James Webb Space Telescope and the European Space Agency&#8217;s ARIEL mission will be able to describe exoplanet atmospheres in far greater detail.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;Over 4,000 exoplanets have been detected but we don&#8217;t know much about their composition and nature,&#8221; Tinetti said. &#8220;By observing a large sample of planets, we hope to reveal secrets about their chemistry, formation and evolution.&#8221;</p>
<p class="p1"><em>– AFP</em></p>
South Korean yards are beating their Chinese rivals and look well placed as new regulations demand new types of ships
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/korean-shipbuilders-reclaim-global-top-spot/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/korean-shipbuilders-reclaim-global-top-spot/<p>In what must surely be a relief for one of its flagship industrial sectors, South Korea beat China to claim the top spot in global shipbuilding orders for the fourth consecutive month, from May to August this year, South Korean data showed.</p>
<p>This is good news for South Korean yards, locked in a ferocious battle with China to claim the top spot in the global market. Korea surpassed China last year – for the first time since 2015 – as the see-sawing struggle for the top spot continues between the two manufacturing giants.</p>
<p>The news comes as two of Korea&#8217;s top three await the approval of international anti-trust regulators for a mega-merger. If that deal goes ahead, the merged entity would be well placed to benefit from incoming regulations that require upgrades to ships&#8217; environmental technologies.</p>
<p>That is a spur that is desperately needed for a global industry that, since the early 2000s, has seen rises and falls amid multiple global economic headwinds, ranging from the 2008 financial crisis and falling oil prices to the rising use of terrestrial gases.</p>
<h4>By the numbers</h4>
<p>The recent positive results were possible thanks to South Korea&#8217;s dominant position in constructing ships such as LNG carriers, LNG-powered ships and VLCCs, or Very Large Crude-Oil Carriers. These high-value-added vessels require leading-edge technologies, as opposed to such ships as grain and bulk carriers.</p>
<p>According to data from Seoul&#8217;s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, South Korean shipbuilders won orders for 735,000 CGT – Compensated Gross Tonnage – in August, accounting for 73.5% of the total global orders – 1 million CGT.</p>
<p>By contrast, Chinese yards won orders of 260,000 CGT.</p>
<p>For the wider January-August period, Korean shipbuilders gained the world&#8217;s No 1 position in terms of order value. Korean yards won orders worth US$11.3 billion, beating China – which won orders worth $10.93 billion – into a close second place.</p>
<p>However, in terms of tonnage during the same period, South Korean firms received 4.64 million CGT – slightly behind their Chinese rivals, with 5.02 million CGT.</p>
<p>Still, it was good news overall. In the January-August period, South Korean shipbuilders posted 24 of 27 global orders for LNG carriers, and 10 of the 17 for VLCCs.</p>
<p>&#8220;Except for orders placed by the Japanese and Chinese governments, Korean firms won most of the global orders for LNG carriers and VLCCs,&#8221; the trade ministry said in a press release.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the number of ships in Korea built in the January-August period came to 6.76 million CGT, up 14% from a year earlier. Since its construction volume hit a record low of 7.72 million CGT in 2018 due to a steep decline in orders in 2016, it has been on the rise as orders increased between 2017 and 2018. The time difference between orders and delivery is one to two years.</p>
<p>The global shipbuilding industry faced a steep decline in orders in 2016 when the number fell to 13.42 million CGT from 43.13 million CGT the previous year. Those numbers had been in recovery from the 2008 global financial crisis, but then the prolonged international trade dispute hit the global economy.</p>
<p>&#8220;Compared with the year 2010, when the shipbuilding industry was at its peak, about 70% of shipbuilders disappeared around the globe, with building capacity decreasing by 50%,&#8221; an industry insider told Asia Times.</p>
<p>And capacity is dwindling.</p>
<p>&#8220;This year&#8217;s shipbuilding orders are not expected to match last year&#8217;s due to the sluggish global economy,&#8221; an official at the Korean industry ministry told Asia Times. &#8220;Therefore, Korean shipbuilders&#8217; order books may not reach the level of last year.&#8221;</p>
<p>Global shipbuilding order books in 2017 and 2018 amounted to 28.01 million CGT and 31.08 CGT, respectively, while orders in the January-August period this year posted 13.31 million CGT.</p>
<p>However, an industry insider offered a different view. He told Asia Times: &#8220;Despite an expected fall in placed orders, Korean shipbuilders may win as many orders as last year&#8217;s thanks to a rise in market share.&#8221;</p>
<h4>Restructuring and recovery</h4>
<p>The South Korean shipbuilding industry, which was the world&#8217;s No 1 until the early and mid-2000s, began to suffer after 2008.</p>
<p>As a result, major South Korean shipbuilders Hyundai Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding &amp; Marine Engineering and Samsung Heavy Industries shifted their focus to lucrative offshore drilling rigs.</p>
<p>That strategy offered some relief – but then a sharp drop in international oil prices from 2014 led to massive losses in the oil sector, cutting deeply into shipyard&#8217;s order books. The problems for South Korea were compounded as US shale gas and Russian piped gas increasingly came online, negating the needs for vessels and rigs.</p>
<p>In this environment, fierce competition among Korean firms led to lower-priced deals. Contracts were yet another problem.</p>
<p>&#8220;When major Korean shipbuilders won orders for offshore drilling vessels, they signed lump sum turnkey contracts under which they had to bear the expenses of frequent design changes,&#8221; Hong Sung-in, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics &amp; Trade, or KIET, told Asia Times.</p>
<p>&#8220;The ordered large drilling rigs were to be used in extreme conditions such as deep-sea or the Arctic region, so unexpected changes in design occurred frequently,&#8221; added Hong. &#8220;Besides, the sharp drop in oil prices has removed the incentive for the oil companies to deliver and operate offshore drilling plants quickly. In the end, the nation&#8217;s large shipbuilders suffered trillions of won in losses.&#8221;</p>
<p>In 2015, a government-led restructuring was launched. In the broader restructuring process, some shipbuilders closed down, while mid-sized yards managed to survive through court receivership.</p>
<p>But Korea&#8217;s &#8220;Big Three&#8221; remained. Hyundai Heavy Industries and Samsung came up with &#8220;self-rescue&#8221; plans, streamlining their businesses and reducing employees.</p>
<p>Daewoo Shipbuilding &amp; Marine Engineering (DSME) was more problematic. Nearly 10 trillion won ($8.3 billion) in public money was injected into the yard, a long-term victim of the 1997-8 Asian economic crisis.</p>
<p>However, it has never been returned to private ownership, despite repeated bailouts. That may be about to change.</p>
<h4>Creating a super yard</h4>
<p>A true monster of a deal now looms on the horizon.</p>
<p>The world&#8217;s largest shipbuilder, Hyundai Heavy, and the second-largest, DSME, are set to merge to form an entity with more than 20% of the total global shipbuilding market share and 60-70% of LNG carriers. But they are not there yet. They are seeking approval from foreign antitrust authorities to finalize the takeover.</p>
<p>&#8220;The biggest headwind of the merger deal is antitrust issues in Europe,<b>&#8221; </b>an industry expert said. &#8220;European authorities have recently launched a regular investigation on this issue after finishing the preliminary investigation phase.</p>
<p>&#8220;Labor unions of both companies are against the merger, but as long as the united entity shows strong performance so that it maintains the current level of employment, they will not oppose the deal,&#8221; he added.</p>
<h4>Competitive edges</h4>
<p>As in other industrial sectors, South Korean shipbuilders are facing dangerous competition from up-and-coming Chinese counterparts. Chinese yards offer lower costs and benefit from lucrative government contracts, but have bought over-supply to the global industry.</p>
<p>To counter low-cost Chinese competitors, South Korean players honed their competitive edge in high value-added ships such as LNG carriers, VLCCs, ULCCs (Ultra Large Crude-oil Carrier), ultra-large container ships and LNG-fueled ships.</p>
<p>&#8220;Among Chinese shipbuilders, Hudong-Zhonghua is the only one that can build LNG carriers, but they have only won orders from Chinese companies,&#8221; Hong of KIET said. &#8220;Korean shipbuilders are dominating markets for LNG carriers and LNG-fueled vessels, and maintain their competitive edge in the VLCC and ULCC market.&#8221;</p>
<p>But Hong added that the Chinese would gain technologies through experience in building these high value-added vessels with the support of the Chinese government and public companies placing orders. They are already highly competitive in building cost-sensitive vessels such as bulk carriers and container ships.</p>
<p>An industry insider estimated that the current technology gap between South Korea and China is about &#8220;10 years&#8221; apart.</p>
<p>Another aspect of Korean competitive edge is execution.</p>
<p>&#8220;China takes about 30 months to build LNG carriers, while Korea takes 22 months. The shorter the building period is, the more benefits ship owners enjoy,&#8221; he said. &#8220;In particular, China cannot afford the technology to build LNG icebreakers that sail through the Arctic region.&#8221;</p>
<p>As global warming enables increasing use of Arctic sea routes, this sector is expected to expand.</p>
<p>&#8220;VLCCs are expected to use LNG as fuel in the future and shipowners prefer Korean shipbuilders for building LNG-fueled ships,&#8221; the industry player continued. &#8220;That means ship owners recognize the technological gap.&#8221;</p>
<h4>Vessels of tomorrow</h4>
<p>The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has introduced regulations to reduce sulfur oxides in ship fuels to 0.5% from the current 3.5%. The regulation takes effect in 2022.</p>
<p>This will require shipowners to switch fuels to high-priced, low-sulfur fuel oils, or install &#8220;scrubbers&#8221; – technologies that reduce sulfur emissions from vessel engines.</p>
<p>The IMO also plans to toughen, by stages, regulations on emissions of greenhouse gases. Therefore, more and more ship owners are expected to place orders for LNG-fueled vessels which meet these environmental requirements.</p>
<p>&#8220;From 2022, when the Phase 3 IMO regulation to reduce greenhouse gasses takes effect, some vessels will have problems with operations,&#8221; an industry expert told Asia Times. &#8220;So the demand for LNG-fueled ships is expected to rise, and Korean shipbuilders have a strong competitive edge in this field against their Chinese rivals.&#8221;</p>
<p>And new technologies will breed new sub-sectors of the industry.</p>
<p>Experts said that automated sailing vessels would also appear in the future, a development that is also imminently expected in the automobile industry. Developing hydrogen-fueled vessels is also underway to cope with strengthened environmental regulations.</p>
<p>Experts said Europe is ahead of other regions or countries in this field, but South Korea has also invested heavily in R&amp;D on future vessels.</p>
They reaffirm the social order even though clownish figures seem to be becoming the new normal in politics
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/jokers-and-clowns-define-our-times/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/jokers-and-clowns-define-our-times/<p>The joker, the trickster, the jester, the provocateur – there is a rich cultural history of these roles going back at least as far as Greek mythology’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes">Hermes</a>.</p>
<p>One of the most famous jester figures of the modern age is the Joker, who made his debut in the first issue of Batman comics in 1940.</p>
<p>The Joker is funny, cool, and refreshingly intelligent. He is also back in theaters in the next few weeks in the aptly named <em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7286456/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1">Joker</a></em>, which this week <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/07/entertainment/joker-venice-film-festival-trnd/index.html">won Best Film</a> at the Venice Film Festival.</p>
<p>As Batman’s arch-nemesis, the Joker offers a reprieve from the less interesting narcissistic, angst-ridden histrionics of the hero. His punishment of society is often comical, and his relentlessly ironic spirit of rebellion contrasts with Batman’s dour moral self-righteousness.</p>
<p>In a deck of cards, the joker is, most of the time, formally useless. The two cards are omitted from most games, yet the deck is incomplete without them.</p>
<p>The joker is a necessary non-card, the exception that glues together the rest of the pack. A card of shifting rank and use, the joker offers a spark of improvisation within a rigidly hierarchical order.</p>
<p>Culturally, the joker reaffirms the social order through his lampooning of it, turning socially significant places into spaces of carnival and clowning, revealing the comical and absurd cracks in a spirit of anarchic play.</p>
<p>There are many of these self-styled “maverick” figures in global politics today, who strategically position themselves as somehow outside of the power structures they, in fact, serve to reproduce. Yet this role has always been intimately tied up with the institutions it appears to subvert.</p>
<p>The court jester, for example, functioned in part to legitimize the social order. He maintained a performative relationship with the people, but his acts of subversion of power reaffirmed its very boundaries in the first place.</p>
<p>The words and actions of such provocateurs flirting with the boundaries of social good taste and etiquette should always be taken with a grain of salt. Power can reproduce itself in multiple ways -including through its apparent critique.</p>
<p>Within the Batman franchise, the most effective characterizations of the Joker have him tottering dangerously between comedic whimsy and psychopathic sadism – that liminal space in which, arguably, all great comedy occurs.</p>
<p>Perhaps the greatest actor to portray the role is Jack Nicholson in Tim Burton’s <em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096895/?ref_=ttmi_tt">Batman</a></em> (1989). Nicholson’s Joker embraces the wackiness of Cesar Romero’s earlier interpretation in the 1960s TV series but adds a genuinely nasty edge, and this combination of colorful zaniness with lethal brutality makes for a disturbing experience for the viewer.</p>
<p>“I make art until someone dies,” Nicholson’s Joker says to journalist Vicki Vale, played by Kim Basinger, in an art museum after he and his goons have defaced several pieces whilst bopping along to Prince.</p>
<figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g3dl32LaOls?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure>
<p>“See, I am the world’s first fully functioning homicidal artist.”</p>
<p>By the late 1980s, Nicholson, appearing as the perfect sleazeball in films like <em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094332/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Witches of Eastwick</a></em> (1987), was the man behind some of the most hated characters in cinema. He was, thus, perfectly cast as the Joker – it helps that the Joker’s demonically twisted face isn’t that far from his own.</p>
<p>Nicholson received first billing in <em>Batman</em> and, as Roger Ebert commented, the viewer’s tendency is to root for the Joker over Batman. It is this ambiguity that makes Burton’s film so compelling.</p>
<p>Heath Ledger’s Joker from <em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Dark Knight</a></em> (2008), for which he received a posthumous Best Supporting Actor Oscar, was virtuosically full-bodied. Ledger is eerily, vitally intense. Yet the famous question he asks in the film – “Why so serious?” – could easily be turned back on Ledger’s own performance.</p>
<p>Ledger endows the role with a psychological realism that, paradoxically, makes for a less interesting, and less complex, experience for the viewer than more ambiguous portrayals.</p>
<p>The uncomfortable mixture of the comical and the sadistic is what makes the character perennially appealing – we never know which Joker we will be getting at any time. Ledger, by making the character “real”, turns him into, merely, a rather humorless creep.</p>
<p>The symbiotic nature of the relationship between Batman and the Joker usually remains unexplored. Wonderfully, <em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4116284/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Lego Batman Movie</a></em> (2017) makes this relationship centre stage.</p>
<p>The film follows the Joker (Zach Galifianakis) as he tries to get Batman (Will Arnett) to admit that he needs the Joker as much as the Joker needs him. Batman refuses to acknowledge the bond the two share throughout most of the film; when he finally does, their bromance can fully mature.</p>
<p>The latest version of the Joker is played by Joaquin Phoenix, an actor whose career has oscillated between the absurdly intense (<em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0358273/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Walk the Line</a></em>) and the disarmingly clownish (<em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1356864/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">I’m Still Here</a></em>). Todd Phillips’ film promises to revitalize the character in an origin story following down-on-his-luck comedian/clown Arthur Fleck who transforms into the Joker as his mental health deteriorates.</p>
<figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zAGVQLHvwOY?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure>
<p>Early reviews have praised the film’s representation of the current political landscape. <a href="https://www.timeout.com/london/film/joker-1">Time Out</a> calls it a “nightmarish vision of late-era capitalism”, and <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/2019/08/joker-review-joaquin-phoenix-1202170236/?fbclid=IwAR3hq0W9cqSkr4Lc_DaE1jqwlW5odbYL-b_9K_XQG4AV2riKIpFveCsZ6V8">IndieWire</a> suggests it is “about the dehumanising effects of a capitalistic system that greases the economic ladder”.</p>
<p>In the context of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-masculine-culture-that-favors-sexual-conquests-gave-us-todays-incels-97221">incel movement</a> &#8211; in which men rally around the perception of their own unjust victimhood &#8211; a narrative of a violent folk hero forming through the failure of his dreams of celebrity glory seems strikingly poignant.</p>
<p>The frequency with which mass shootings now occur in America (in 2012 James Holmes <a href="https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/remembering-the-12-victims-of-the-aurora-theater-shooting-7-years-later">killed 12 people</a> at a screening of <em>The Dark Night</em> in Aurora, Colorado) has also lead to concerns about how the story will be read. The same Indiewire review criticised the film as “a toxic rallying cry for self-pitying incels.”</p>
<p>Given the necessity for a law and order stalwart against which the Joker can launch his antics, it is notable that there is no Batman in this film. Will the Joker be able to sustain a feature-length narrative on his own?</p>
<p>In April, comedian <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48007487">Volodymyr Zelensky</a> was elected president of the Ukraine. The UK’s new prime minister, Boris Johnson, has been dubbed “Bojo” by the press – and they’re not just alluding to his name.</p>
<p>Much of the popularity of Trump has emerged from his presentation of himself as an outsider to the elite willing to lampoon and ridicule power – never mind that, as a rich New York City businessman, he is power personified.</p>
<p>The broader significance of this phenomenon is a little trickier to diagnose. It makes sense that, in an age when everything is valued in terms of its entertainment function (and when most people are aware of the common sleights of hand of the mainstream media they consume), clownish reality TV stars, provocateur comedians and gregariously sleazy entrepreneurs would amass unprecedented levels of power in the public domain.</p>
<p>Politicians entertain us by donning the outfit of the jester and making fun of politicians.</p>
<p>Perhaps, this reflects a more widespread public cynicism regarding professional politics, or perhaps it is simply a reflection of a desire to be perpetually distracted by entertaining clowns.</p>
<p>At any rate, the film should be a hoot to watch.<!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: http://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
<p><em>Ari Mattes is a lecturer in media studies at the University of Notre Dame Australia</em></p>
<p>This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. <strong>Read</strong> the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-jokers-origin-story-comes-at-a-perfect-moment-clowns-define-our-times-123009">original article</a>.</p>
Al-Qaeda releases video calling for assaults on American, European, Israeli and Russian interests
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/trump-on-9-11-vows-to-hit-taliban-harder/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/trump-on-9-11-vows-to-hit-taliban-harder/<p>President Donald Trump pledged to hit the Taliban &#8220;harder&#8221; than ever as America on Wednesday marked the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that led the country into war in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Trump&#8217;s remarks came after he aborted what would have been a historic Afghanistan peace summit, and as relatives remembered the victims of the deadliest terror attacks on US soil at ceremonies in New York and Washington.</p>
<p>Trump spoke at a Pentagon event honoring the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks &#8212; announcing an unprecedented escalation of the military assault on the Taliban.</p>
<p>He said that over &#8220;the last four days,&#8221; US forces have &#8220;hit our enemy harder than they have ever been hit before and that will continue.&#8221;</p>
<p>The nature of the offensive was not immediately clear, but Trump said it was ordered after he canceled peace talks with the Taliban over the weekend in retaliation for a bomb attack that killed one US soldier last week.</p>
<p>He also warned militants against ever carrying out an attack in the US again.</p>
<p>&#8220;If for any reason they come back to our country, we will go wherever they are, and use power, the likes of which the United States has never used before,&#8221; Trump said.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not even talking about nuclear power. They will never have seen anything like what will happen to them,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>The warlike comments came as Al-Qaeda, which carried out the attacks, released a video calling for assaults on American, European, Israeli and Russian interests.</p>
<p>The militant group&#8217;s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri criticized &#8220;backtrackers&#8221; from jihad in the 33-minute video, according to Site Intelligence Group.</p>
<p>Trump announced on Twitter Saturday that he&#8217;d been about to meet leaders of the Taliban &#8212; who harbored Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan &#8212; on Sunday at his Camp David presidential retreat.</p>
<p>The announcement angered some, coming so close to the September 11, 2001 anniversary.</p>
<p>Relatives of victims, survivors, police officers, firefighters and city leaders held a ceremony Wednesday at Ground Zero where planes hijacked by Al-Qaeda operatives brought down the Twin Towers.</p>
<h4>&#8216;America&#8217;s heroes&#8217;</h4>
<p>They held poignant moments of silence at 8:46 am (1246 GMT) and 9:03 am, the precise times that the jets struck the North and South Towers. Silences were also held at the times the 100-storey-plus skyscrapers fell.</p>
<p>In what has become an annual tradition, relatives read out the long list of those who were killed, saying a few words about each victim, in a ceremony that took almost four hours.</p>
<p>&#8220;We love you, we miss you and you will always be America&#8217;s heroes,&#8221; said one woman after reading out the names of her brother and cousin.</p>
<p>Relatives hugged and consoled each other and left roses at the memorial. Some held up placards with images of their loved ones who were killed.</p>
<p>Bagpipes played as police officers walked into the ceremony carrying the US flag before America&#8217;s national anthem was played.</p>
<p>New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and his predecessors Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani were among those who attended.</p>
<p>Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcomed victims&#8217; families and survivors to the White House, where they marked the anniversary with a moment of silence before the president delivered his speech at the Pentagon, where he also laid a wreath.</p>
<p>Al-Qaeda hijacked four planes. The third hit the Pentagon and the fourth, Flight 93, crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>In addition to those killed on September 11, thousands of first responders, construction workers and residents have since developed illness, many of them terminal, as a result of inhaling toxic fumes that engulfed lower Manhattan.</p>
<p>Around 2,400 US soldiers have died in Afghanistan. Some 14,000 US troops remain in the country, a fraction of the peak of about 100,000 in 2010.</p>
<p>Trump has vowed to end the war and bring the remaining US soldiers home.</p>
<p>His abrupt decision to cancel peace talks with the Taliban was followed by the sacking of his controversial national security advisor John Bolton on Tuesday.</p>
<p><em>AFP</em></p>
To delay by two weeks an increase in tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/trump-delays-tariff-hike-after-chinese-move/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/trump-delays-tariff-hike-after-chinese-move/<p>After an apparent conciliatory move by China, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday made one of his own, announcing that he agreed to delay an increase in tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods by two weeks.</p>
<p>Speaking weeks ahead of the resumption of talks aimed at resolving a grinding trade war, Trump said the tariff delay was requested by Beijing.</p>
<p>Top negotiators expect to reconvene in Washington early next month after an acrimonious summer in which trade relations deteriorated sharply and both governments announced waves of new tariffs in a stand-off that is dragging on the global economy.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have agreed, as a gesture of good will, to move the increased Tariffs on 250 Billion Dollars worth of goods (25% to 30%), from October 1st to October 15th,&#8221; Trump tweeted late Wednesday.</p>
<p>He said the delay was requested by &#8220;Vice Premier of China, Liu He, and due to the fact that the People&#8217;s Republic of China will be celebrating their 70th Anniversary,&#8221; on October 1.</p>
<p>Early Wednesday, Beijing announced it was temporarily exempting some US exports from tariff increases, a gesture that lifted equity markets long buffeted by the ups and downs in the conflict now entering its second year.</p>
<p>&#8220;It was a big move,&#8221; Trump told reporters at the White House. He reiterated that Beijing was under pressure to strike a bargain as its economy weakens, which he attributed to US actions.</p>
<p>However, the goods exempted do not include high-profile agricultural items like soybeans and pork that could be crucial to the ultimate success of any agreement.</p>
<p>The exemptions will become effective on September 17 and be valid for a year, according to the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council, which released two lists that include seafood products and anti-cancer drugs.</p>
<p>The lists mark the first time Beijing has announced products to be excluded from tariffs.</p>
<p>Other categories that will be spared include alfalfa pellets and fish feed, and the commission said it was also considering further exemptions.</p>
<p>Both sides imposed fresh tit-for-tat tariffs on September 1, adding to the duties that now cover hundreds of billions of dollars&#8217; worth of goods.</p>
<p>Trump initiated the trade war complaining that China engaged in unfair trade practices.</p>
<p>&#8220;These adjustments signal that China is more willing to make progress in the October trade talks, likely toward striking a &#8216;narrow&#8217; agreement that involves China buying more US goods in exchange for the US suspending further tariff hikes,&#8221; Barclays analysts said in a research note.</p>
<p>They said Beijing had been sounding a more &#8220;constructive&#8221; note in recent weeks over trade relations.</p>
<h4>Growing pressure</h4>
<p>But US businesses in China are increasingly pessimistic about their prospects.</p>
<p>A report released Wednesday said growing numbers of companies expect their revenues and investment in the local market to shrink.</p>
<p>The American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai&#8217;s report said 47 percent surveyed said they expected to increase their investments in China in 2019, down from 62 percent last year.</p>
<p>Three-quarters of businesses surveyed said they opposed the use of punitive tariffs by the United States to force China into a trade deal.</p>
<p>China&#8217;s economy grew 6.2 percent on-year in the second quarter, the lowest rate in nearly three decades – a fact Trump highlighted on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Auto sales in China fell by 6.9 percent in August compared with the previous year, an official industry association said Wednesday, extending a slump.</p>
<p>Trump has said the protracted trade war is damaging China more than the United States, and China is &#8220;eating the tariffs.&#8221;</p>
<p>But experts have warned there are signs the US is also feeling the pinch, with job creation slowing across major industries last month.</p>
<p>Wall Street added to gains after Trump spoke, reflecting renewed hope an agreement could be reached to end the trade war.</p>
<p>The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 0.9 percent to close at 27,137.04.</p>
<p><em>AFP</em></p>
Officials demand explanation after Halifax-class frigate HMCS Ottawa sails provocative route through Taiwan Strait
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/intrustion-of-canadian-warship-raises-chinas-ire/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/intrustion-of-canadian-warship-raises-chinas-ire/<p>China has questioned Canada&#8217;s &#8220;intentions&#8221; behind sending a warship to traverse the Taiwan Strait, amid frosty relations between Beijing and Ottawa, Channel News Asia (CNA) reported.</p>
<p>A Canadian Halifax-class frigate, the HMCS Ottawa, passed through the strategic waterway on Tuesday in a &#8220;freedom of navigation&#8221; operation, Taiwanese authorities said, the latest such voyage by a Western navy to anger Beijing.</p>
<p>China views any passing through the narrow channel separating Taiwan and the Chinese mainland as a breach of its sovereignty — while the US and many other nations see the route as international space, CNA said.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Chinese side does not limit the normal passage of foreign warships through the Taiwan Strait,&#8221; Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular briefing.</p>
<p>&#8220;But I don&#8217;t know what special intentions the Canadian side has in deliberately making high-profile announcements about its warship (crossing the Taiwan Strait).</p>
<p>&#8220;We hope that Canada will demonstrate its respect for China&#8217;s sovereignty and security through practical actions.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to the Globe &amp; Mail, it was the second time in almost three months, that Canada sailed a warship through the strait that separates China from the self-governed island of Taiwan — a measure seen as a demonstration of support for the United States and other allies who regard the passage as an international corridor rather than Beijing’s internal waters.</p>
<p>The Canadian vessel was shadowed by the Chinese military during its transit, a source at the Department of National Defence said.</p>
<p>Chinese military regards the 180-kilometre-wide Taiwan Strait as internal waters and a strategic waterway, and Beijing has deployed more than 1,500 missiles along its length, the Globe reported.</p>
<p>It regularly conducts military drills in the area and “has sent bombers, fighter jets and its aircraft carrier over and around the strait as shows of force,” according to the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations.</p>
<p class="c-article-body__text">Military officials in Canada played down the Taiwan Strait passage, saying HMCS Ottawa plotted this course to shorten sailing time between two assignments, the Globe reported.</p>
<p class="c-article-body__text">“This route was chosen as it was the most direct route between UN Security Council sanctions-monitoring activities in Northeast Asia and engagements in Southeast Asia,” a statement from Canadian Joint Operations Command said.</p>
<p>Canada&#8217;s de facto embassy in Taipei said in a statement Monday that sailing through the strait is &#8220;the most practical route&#8221; between South Korea&#8217;s Pyeongtaek and the Thai capital Bangkok.</p>
<p>&#8220;The HMCS Ottawa&#8217;s current deployment is consistent with past Royal Canadian Navy practice and international law,&#8221; it added.</p>
<p>Relations between China and Canada have deteriorated since December when police in Vancouver detained<a href="https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/huawei-cfo-arrested-canada-extradite-us-iran-sanctions-11001504" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> </a>Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou on a US arrest warrant over charges of Iran sanctions violations.</p>
<p>Days after her arrest, China detained two Canadians — a former diplomat and a businessman — and later accused them of espionage-related actions in what is seen as a tit-for-tat move.</p>
<p>China has also blocked Canadian agricultural shipments worth billions of dollars.</p>
Akilisi Pohiva, a democrat at odds with monarchy
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/tonga-pm-dies-in-auckland-hospital-reports/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/tonga-pm-dies-in-auckland-hospital-reports/<p>Tonga&#8217;s prime minister, a long-time democracy campaigner, Akilisi Pohiva, died Thursday in an Auckland hospital a day after being airlifted from the Pacific kingdom to receive treatment for pneumonia, local media reported.</p>
<p>The 78-year-old had suffered from ill health for years and his office issued a statement Wednesday urging people to pray for him.</p>
<p>Multiple news sources, including Radio New Zealand and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, reported that Pohiva died on Thursday morning at Auckland City Hospital.</p>
<p>Officials in Tonga could not be contacted and the country&#8217;s embassy in New Zealand refused to comment on the reports.</p>
<p>Pohiva, a former history teacher, was a pioneering campaigner for greater democratic representation in Tonga, which remains a monarchy heavily influenced by the royal family and nobles.</p>
<p>He was elected to parliament in 1987 and became prime minister in 2014 after reforms that gave ordinary voters more say in their government.</p>
<p>King Tupou VI effectively sacked him in 2017 by dissolving parliament and calling a snap election, but Pohiva defied expectations to win a second term.</p>
<p>Despite ill health, he remained active in office and last month attended the Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu, where he lobbied for urgent action on climate change.</p>
<p><em>AFP</em></p>
The air-land system consists of numerous UAVs, road-mobile relay stations as well as a satellite-based maritime network
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/china-launches-drones-to-monitor-south-china-sea/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/china-launches-drones-to-monitor-south-china-sea/<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm" data-reactid="11">A network of drones has been deployed by Beijing to watch over the islands and reefs of the disputed South China Sea, Yahoo News reported.</p>
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm" data-reactid="12">The network, run by the Ministry of Natural Resources, covers the uninhabited, hard-to-reach islands as well as the vast open waters of the area, according to the ministry’s South Sea Bureau, the report said.</p>
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm" data-reactid="13">The drone communication chain has “extremely enhanced our dynamic surveillance of the South China Sea, and expanded our reach to the high seas,” the bureau said on its official website.</p>
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm" data-reactid="14">The air-land system consists of numerous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) carrying high-definition cameras, road-mobile communication vehicles which act as transmission relay stations, as well as a satellite-based maritime information communication network, according to the bureau.</p>
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm" data-reactid="26">The light drones are intended to supplement China’s satellite remote sensing system — which is often affected by cloudy weather in the area — with higher definition, multi-angle, and real-time images.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379176" style="width: 776px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-379176 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-11-at-9.27.33-AM.png" alt="" width="776" height="454" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-11-at-9.27.33-AM.png 776w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-11-at-9.27.33-AM-768x449.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text"><br />China&#8217;s Ministry of Natural Resources is launching a new surveillance drone network to monitor strategic parts of Chinese maritime claims in the South China Sea. Handout.</figcaption></figure>
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm" data-reactid="27">The communication vans can be driven or ferried to places that lack a land-based communication station and receive signals sent by the drones. The signals can then be uploaded to the satellite network as still images or live streams, to be displayed thousands of kilometres away at the bureau’s command headquarters in the southern province of Guangdong.</p>
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm" data-reactid="28">“The system has been used in maritime administration including to inspect waters for suspicious signs, investigate historical problem sites, and monitor the sea and islands in real time,” the bureau said.</p>
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm" data-reactid="29">“It will play a significant role in cases of disaster observation and emergency response, such as oil spill accidents or red tide algal outbreaks.”</p>
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm" data-reactid="30">China claims most of the resource-rich South China Sea, which is also one of the world’s busiest trading routes, but there are competing and overlapping claims to the area by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, the report said.</p>
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm" data-reactid="32">The drone network is China’s latest assertion of its authority over the region, following the establishment of military outposts on seven artificial islands it built in the disputed Spratly archipelago.</p>
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm" data-reactid="33">China is also launching the Hainan satellite constellation system — expected to be completed by 2021 — for real-time daily monitoring of traffic in the South China Sea. The system will include six optical satellites, two hyperspectral satellites and two radar satellites.</p>
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)--sm Mt(0.8em)--sm" data-reactid="34">Beijing has also established weather radars, maritime observation, and environmental monitoring stations, reinforcing its sovereignty and providing “public goods” to other users of the sensitive area.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379245" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-379245 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-11-at-9.33.56-AM.png" alt="" width="750" height="290" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The Cloud Shadow, China&#8217;s first stealth UCAV, comes with long range attack options like light cruise missiles (center), and smart glide bombs (to the left and right of the cruise missile). Handout.</figcaption></figure>
<p data-reactid="34">
PLA forces join other nations to carry out mock battles, ground combat, air superiority and other military training
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/chinas-military-bolsters-readiness-with-joint-exercises/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/chinas-military-bolsters-readiness-with-joint-exercises/<p>China&#8217;s military forces continue to be involved in joint exercises throughout Asia to improve its state of readiness and to boost friendship, exchanges and cooperation between nations, Global Times reported.</p>
<p>Chinese and Pakistani air forces wrapped up the half-month-long Shaheen VIII joint exercises in northwestern China on Friday, during which systematic mock battles were conducted for the first time.</p>
<p>Multiple types of warplanes, surface-to-air missiles and radar installations from the two air forces took part in the mock battles, according to a statement released by the Chinese People&#8217;s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force.</p>
<p>The red team was from China&#8217;s air force, and the blue team was a combination of Chinese and Pakistani troops, China Central Television (CCTV) reported.</p>
<p>About 50 warplanes, including fighter jets and early warning aircraft took part in the mock battles consisting of seizing air superiority and ground attack, the PLA Air Force statement said.</p>
<p>This marked an unprecedented joint exercise between China and a foreign country with the most number of personnel, types of weapons and combat units involved.</p>
<p>During the exercises, pilots from both countries also boarded each other&#8217;s warplanes and discussed combat techniques, CCTV reported.</p>
<p>Chinese warplanes including J-10, J-11, J-16, Su-30 fighter jets, JH-7 fighter bombers and KJ-500 early warning aircraft were seen in the CCTV report.</p>
<p>The Shaheen series joint exercises started as a one-on-one dogfight, but now it has evolved into systematic mock battles featuring more warplanes, multiple military branches which include ground forces that deploy missiles and electronic countermeasures, Xin Xin, commander of the red team air formation, told CCTV.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379236" style="width: 632px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-379236 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-11-at-1.41.16-PM.png" alt="" width="632" height="378" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-11-at-1.41.16-PM.png 632w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-11-at-1.41.16-PM-300x180.png 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-11-at-1.41.16-PM-600x360.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 632px) 100vw, 632px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">China has dispatched JH-7A fighter bombers to strategic war games in Russia. Handout.</figcaption></figure>
<p>And on Saturday, Russia held a grand welcoming ceremony upon the arrival of Chinese armed forces, including well-anticipated Type 96A tanks and H-6K bombers, for the upcoming Tsentr-2019 (Center-2019) strategic drills.</p>
<p>China dispatched more than 1,600 troops from the Western Theater Command and some other units of the PLA, together with main battle equipment including Type 96A tanks, H-6K bombers, JH-7A fighter bombers, J-11 fighter jets, Il-76 and Y-9 transport planes and Z-10 attack helicopters, CCTV reported.</p>
<p>&#8220;The drills will further enhance and deepen the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era between China and Russia. It also has significant meaning on boosting our military&#8217;s capability to deal with all kinds of security threats together with other countries&#8217; militaries,&#8221; Ma Qixian, commander of the participating Chinese forces, told CCTV.</p>
<p>The drills will be held from September 16 to 21 in the Orenburg region of Russia. China, Pakistan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will participate, the Russian TASS news agency reported, citing a statement released by the Russian Defense Ministry.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the PLA recently conducted a joint land assault exercise featuring multiple military branches near the island of Taiwan, which military experts said shows the Chinese military is ready to unleash its full potential against its enemies and send a stern warning to countries that intervene in China&#8217;s internal affairs.</p>
<p>The 74th Group Army of the PLA recently held a joint land assault exercise off the eastern coast of South China&#8217;s Guangdong Province, with the navy and air force joining the simulated attack, CCTV reported.</p>
<p>Led by the navy&#8217;s amphibious assault ships, with additional air support, a combined arms brigade of the army launched a joint assault on a coastal area.</p>
<p>&#8220;We upgraded our system so that battlefield data can be shared in real time. Intelligence gathered by the navy, air force and ourselves on the battlefield can be reported to the command center, and shared between basic units,&#8221; Liu Shuyi, staff officer of the combined arms brigade, told CCTV.</p>
<p>Although the report did not identify an imaginary enemy for the exercises, Chinese internet users noted the location of the exercises was close to the island of Taiwan.</p>
The new car is broadly similar to the production car that BMW is expected to launch in mid-2020, according to media reports
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/bmws-4-series-grille-garners-mixed-reaction/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/bmws-4-series-grille-garners-mixed-reaction/<p>You either like it, or you don&#8217;t &#8230; in fact, one critic said it resembled a cabbage shredder. Whatever.</p>
<p>Regardless of how you view it, BMW unveiled the design of its next 4-series Concept 4 coupe at the Frankfurt auto show, Automotive News Europe reported.</p>
<p class="inline-ad-para">The surprise addition to BMW&#8217;s stand divided show-goers here with its bold interpretation of the brand&#8217;s traditional kidney-shaped grille, which has got steadily larger with successive model launches.</p>
<p>The new car is broadly similar to the production car that BMW is expected to launch in mid-2020, according to media reports. BMW described the front end as &#8220;the new face of the 4-series range.&#8221;</p>
<p>The 4 series is the sporty version of the 3-series sedan and wagon, both of which have been replaced recently, the report said.</p>
<p class="inline-ad-para">Sales of 4-series models have declined this year as it nears the end of its life cycle, with European sales of the 4-series four-door coupe down 30 percent to 11,069 in the first half the year, the two-door coupe down 43% to 4,385 and demand for the convertible down 24% to 5,339, according to data from market analyst JATO Dynamics.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379224" style="width: 684px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-379224 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-11-at-11.57.20-AM.png" alt="" width="684" height="387" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The profile of the car, with its long bonnet, stretched wheelbase, curved roofline and short overhangs, were described as &#8220;elegant and dynamic&#8221; by the company. Wire photo.</figcaption></figure>
<p class="inline-ad-para">The Concept 4 &#8220;embodies the aesthetic essence of the BMW brand,&#8221; Adrian Hooydonk, head of BMW Group design, said.</p>
<p class="crain-idio-inline-7">The upright grille with its chrome surround and chunky grating was described as an &#8220;immediate advert&#8221; to the car.</p>
<p class="inline-ad-para">BMW said the vertical orientation of the grille referenced sporting cars in its past, including the 328 from 1936 and the 3.0 CSI from 1971.</p>
<p>The profile of the car, with its long bonnet, stretched wheelbase, curved roofline and short overhangs, were described as &#8220;elegant and dynamic&#8221; by the company. It highlighted the &#8220;ultra-pure&#8221; surfaces that suggest performance without too many contours or creases, the company said.</p>
<p class="inline-ad-para">The car has a slender LED light running the width of the vehicle on a back end that BMW describes as looking &#8220;brawny.&#8221; Further design details include 21-inch wheels and slender rearview mirrors described as &#8220;minimalist&#8221; by BMW.</p>
<p>The intent is to give the car its own character, which is why it’s got a new kind of BMW face,” BMW Design’s Stefan Woerns told the UK&#8217;s Autocar. “It’s clearly different from the 3 Series, and unique to the 4 Series, which is as it should be. The intent is to position this car as more exclusive and upscale.”</p>
<p>Asked why Woerns went big on the grille, he responded:</p>
<p>“It’s a new shape of kidney, but it fits the proportions of the car. It’s more vertical than on our other models, but it references coupés from our past, like the 328.”</p>
<p>The engine line-up is expected to be similar to that of the 3 Series, using a range of 2.0-litre four-cylinder and 3.0-litre six-cylinder petrol and diesel powerplants, with a plug-in hybrid model likely.</p>
Ion liquid electric device has undergone in-orbit tests on a small, experimental satellite launched earlier this year
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/pocket-sized-chinese-thruster-has-big-future/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/pocket-sized-chinese-thruster-has-big-future/<p>Chinese space designers have devised a pocket-size device they say can extend small satellites&#8217; life spans and help prevent them from becoming hazardous space debris, China Daily reported.</p>
<p>The ion liquid electric thruster was developed by the 206th Institute under the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp. and has undergone in-orbit tests on a small, experimental Chinese satellite launched earlier this year.</p>
<p>Compared with conventional rocket engines that generate propulsion using chemical propellants, these new ion thrusters use liquid metals — usually cesium, indium or mercury — as propellants, allowing spacecraft to carry much less fuel than before, the report said.</p>
<p>The 300-gram ion thruster is a state-of-the-art propulsion system for small satellites, which, in contrast to traditional large satellites, have no bulky chemically powered engines, said Gao Hui, the equipment&#8217;s chief designer at the Beijing institute.</p>
<p>&#8220;Without large fuel tanks, pumps, valves and toxic propellants mounted on conventional engines, the new devices are totally portable and capable of executing high-precision orbital maneuvers for small satellites in an efficient manner,&#8221; Gao said.</p>
<p>He explained that most small satellites now operate in low-Earth orbits in a passive state and gradually fall from their orbits because they have no propulsion instruments to maintain their altitude.</p>
<p>&#8220;In fact, a very slight propulsive force will be enough to alter a small satellite&#8217;s altitude or to correct any possible orbital deviations, thus prolonging its service life,&#8221; the designer said.</p>
<p>If a high-orbiting satellite completes its service life and remains in orbit, it becomes space debris and poses a potential hazard to other spacecraft.</p>
<p>Without propulsion systems, these satellites potentially float in space forever, adding to existing space clutter.</p>
<p>&#8220;If they are equipped with our thrusters, they will be able to be propelled to leave their orbits and travel outside of all satellite-deployable orbits, eliminating the possibility of turning into dangerous space junk,&#8221; Gao said, adding that this solution can save satellite businesses around the world a lot of money on monitoring and tracking space debris and also ease concerns over the potential for catastrophic collisions.</p>
<p>Xu Nuo, head of applied physics technology at the institute, said that as the market for commercial satellites is quickly expanding in China, demand for the new compact ion thrusters is on the rise.</p>
<p>Xu said that several domestic institutes have been conducting research and development into these thrusters, and her institute is the first to produce and test such devices in flight.</p>
<p>Internationally, only the United States has flight-tested the technology. The institute will continue improving the technology before promoting it to the satellite market, she added.</p>
Beijing to boost the private sector, speed up high-tech manufacturing and increase access for foreign investors
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/china-plays-opening-up-card-amid-trade-tensions/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/china-plays-opening-up-card-amid-trade-tensions/<p class="p1">A rough guide to the state of China’s economy can be gauged by the number of times “reform” and “opening up” are mentioned in official communiques. Or variations on that theme.</p>
<p class="p1">After a meeting of the <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2019-09/09/c_1124979267.htm?mc_cid=6eb4bca7fd&amp;mc_eid=3bfc4a28aa">Central Committee for Comprehensively Deepening Reform</a> on Tuesday, the count reached 20 in the CCCDR statement.</p>
<p class="p1">As usual, the proceedings were chaired by President Xi Jinping with 11 policy decisions pushed through, including ramping up the private sector, speeding up advanced manufacturing and moving towards a modern services industry.</p>
<p class="p1">“[We must] guarantee that all types of ownership have legal and equal access to factors of production, fairly and equally participate in market competition, and receive equal legal protections,” a statement released to Xinhua said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Promoting the integration of advanced manufacturing [with] a modern service industry is [also] an important way to enhance competitiveness and achieve high-quality development,” the official news agency reported.</p>
<p class="p1">“We must [continue] the trend of technological revolution, industrial transformation and consumption upgrading [by] exploring new models, [as well as] strengthening scientific and technological innovation,” Xinhua added, quoting from the central committee statement.</p>
<p class="p1">Yet this blueprint from Xi’s government to <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/07/article/trade-war-drags-on-amid-economic-turmoil/">reinvigorate China’s state-run model</a> is nothing new. Only now, it has become a priority with the trade war with the United States acting as a brake on an already slowing economy.</p>
<h4>Financial sector</h4>
<p class="p1">Before the communique was published by China’s economic team, news broke that Beijing would further “open up” the financial sector by expanding access to capital markets for foreign investors.</p>
<p class="p1">Key to this will be the decision <a href="https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/china-scraps-foreign-investment-cap-in-stocks-bonds-11892062">to scrap the US$300 billion-ceiling</a> on total asset purchases under its qualified foreign institutional investor, or QFII, scheme.</p>
<p class="p1">The QFII program was launched more than a decade ago and it allowed access to onshore stocks and bonds to institutional investors, although there was technically a dollar-denominated limit.</p>
<p class="p1">Later, a similar scheme, the Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor program, or RQFII, was rolled out for overseas investors to buy securities using the offshore yuan. Again, it fell into a quota system, which has also been shelved, the <a href="https://www.safe.gov.cn/en/2019/0910/1553.html">State Administration of Foreign Exchange</a> revealed.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Rjpdj0E5OaQ" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p class="p1">“[It is] clear that [the country] is strategically making a positive push towards adding liquidity to the financial markets and renewing [the] flow of investment into China,” Paul Sandhu, the head of multi-asset quant solutions at BNP Paribas Asset Management in Hong Kong, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/c657fb6e-d3b8-11e9-a0bd-ab8ec6435630">told the Financial Times</a>.</p>
<p class="p1">By the end of June, foreign investors held 2 trillion yuan (US$281 billion) of Chinese bonds and 1.6 trillion yuan in stocks onshore, data released by the People’s Bank of China showed.</p>
<p class="p1">But then last year, the world’s second-largest economy started to accelerate easing restrictions on foreign investment in the financial sector.</p>
<p class="p1">In July, the <a href="http://www.chinabankingnews.com/financial-stability-development-committee/">Financial Stability and Development Committee</a> announced that it would remove shareholding limits on foreign ownership of securities, insurance and fund management firms in 2020 – 12 months earlier than originally planned.</p>
<h4>Challenging period</h4>
<p class="p1">Foreign investors will also be encouraged to set up wealth management firms, currency brokerages and pension management companies, the FSDC confirmed.</p>
<p class="p1">Still, this latest development by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange comes during a challenging period for Xi’s government.</p>
<p class="p1">“[The moves] bode well for reducing some of the risks in the market caused by the US-China trade negotiations, among other things,” Sandhu said.</p>
<p class="p1">Talks are due to resume in Washington next month as the dispute drags on into a second year.</p>
<p class="p1">To underline Beijing’s dilemma, the Ministry of Finance announced plans on Wednesday to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china/china-exempts-some-us-goods-from-retaliatory-tariffs-as-fresh-talks-loom-idUSKCN1VW0IP">exempt an array of American goods and products</a>, including livestock feed, drugs to combat cancer and lubricants, from additional tariffs. They were due to kick-in on September 17.</p>
<p class="p1">“The exemption could be seen as a gesture of sincerity toward the US ahead of negotiations in October but is probably more a means of supporting the economy,” Iris Pang, the economist for Greater China at multinational banking group ING, said in a note.</p>
<p class="p1">“There are still many uncertainties in the coming trade talks. An exemption list of just 16 items will not change China’s stance.”</p>
<p class="p1">It appears excessive talk of “opening up” and “reforms” will only go so far in China’s state-run economic model.</p>
People call the protest song the ‘Hong Kong anthem,’ while football fans boo China’s national anthem
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hong-kong-protesters-sing-new-national-anthem/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hong-kong-protesters-sing-new-national-anthem/<p>The voices of Hong Kong citizens who support the anti-government protests became one after they responded to a call for solidarity and sang what they call a new “anthem” for the former British colony.</p>
<p>The song was sung in various districts on Tuesday night. Meanwhile, some soccer fans booed China’s national anthem before a World Cup qualifier in Hong Kong Stadium.</p>
<p>People went online and called for a peaceful rally to sing a new protest song called “Glory to Hong Kong” on Tuesday night, and many responded to the call by going to shopping malls across the city.</p>
<p>Crowds gathered in Tseung Kawn O, Wong Tin Sin, Kwai Fong, Tai Po, Ma On Shan, Tuen Mun and Mong Kok and Kwun Tong, as well as at an exit of the Prince Edward MTR Station where riot police last week stormed into train carriages to arrest protesters and left a dozen commuters injured.</p>
<p>People turned the light button of their phones on, stayed together, chanted slogans and sang the song together. The peaceful rally was one of the few nights Hong Kong people have had over the past few weeks without clashes between police and protesters escalating and turning violent.</p>
<p>The song “Glory to Hong Kong” was composed by a local musician who took two months to write it, the Stand News reported. It was uploaded to LIHKG, a local-Reddit-like forum, for more input and improvements to the music and lyrics.</p>
<p>On August 31, a music video was uploaded to YouTube and had already generated more than one million views. It has Cantonese and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koOAJHt9UO8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">English</a> versions and the lyrics have also been translated to Japanese and more languages are expected.</p>
<p>The song is described as a Hong Kong song, with some even calling it a “national anthem.” Listeners said the song reflected what Hong Kong people have been going through since June, when the anti-extradition bill saga started.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-xuZSHCVaE4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><em>Pro-democracy supporters sang Glory To Hong Hong in shopping malls across the city.</em></p>
<p>Meanwhile, soccer fans, some dressed in red jerseys to support the local team and also a large number wearing black – the signature color of the anti-extradition movement – booed the playing of China’s national anthem during a World Cup qualifying match between Hong Kong and Iran on Tuesday night.</p>
<p>Some turned their backs to the football pitch, while others made rude gestures. <a href="https://cdn.hk01.com/di/media/images/3268779/org/cde32cf593a68badec838fb26c47bec6.jpg/FB_PTaoOUzF9mNR9A9-k4NJO6AgfE3Y9uiDQX7og0F8?v=w1280" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Some carried banners</a> saying “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time” and &#8220;All Five Demands, Not One Less&#8221; and chanted slogans.</p>
<p>During half-time, some sang ‘Glory to Hong Kong.’</p>
<p>The fans&#8217; actions could result in further punishment from Fifa as the sport&#8217;s governing body fined the Hong Kong Football Association for a similar incident in the past.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.hkupop.hku.hk/english/release/release1594.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">According to a survey by the University of Hong Kong,</a> which had interviewed 1,015 people in June, Hong Kong people identifying as “Chinese” was at a record low since 1997, while those who identified as “Hongkongers” was at it highest.</p>
<p>The survey also revealed that 27% of the respondents were proud of becoming a citizen of China after the handover, while 71% said they did not have such a feeling.</p>
<p>The interviews were done after two massive marches involving a total of three million people on the streets to protest against the now-withdrawn extradition bill.</p>
<p>Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s popularity rating stood at 25.4 marks, a slight rise 0.7 marks, while her net popularity recorded negative 55 percentage points, <a href="https://www.pori.hk/pori_release20190910_eng" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a poll result showed</a>.</p>
<p>Her marks did not change much from the previous survey conducted by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Program. The survey interviewed 1,046 residents between September 2 and 4.</p>
A call to ‘redraw’ Israel’s borders was met with skepticism by settler advocates and right-wing rivals
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/netanyahu-pre-election-gambit-falls-flat-on-right/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/netanyahu-pre-election-gambit-falls-flat-on-right/<p>A pre-election appeal by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to fall flat on Tuesday night, as domestic rivals expressed scant enthusiasm for his latest annexation pledge, which settlers said did not go far enough.</p>
<p>The rallying cry to &#8220;redraw&#8221; Israel&#8217;s borders was quickly overshadowed by news from Washington that US National Security Advisor John Bolton had been fired and Trump was ready to meet his Iranian counterpart &#8220;without preconditions&#8221; on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly later this month.</p>
<p><span class="m_-8535691495176827455gmail-s1">The Tuesday address, billed as a &#8220;dramatic announcement&#8221; by Netanyahu, came after <span class="s1">weeks of leaks insinuating that an official annexation of the settlement blocs would be fully backed by the Trump administration, leading some to conclude that a far-reaching geopolitical move was in the offing.</span></span></p>
<p><span class="s1">In a serious tone, Israel&#8217;s longest-serving premier vowed to apply Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea if he is re-elected in elections slated for </span><span class="s1">September 17. </span></p>
<p><span class="s1">He notably stopped short of promising full annexation, and settled instead for the vague legal formulation of sovereignty,</span><span class="s1"> reiterating a previous electoral promise to instill Israeli law in the major settlement blocs. </span></p>
<p><span class="s1">The speech made clear the plan had not yet received backing from the White House.</span></p>
<h4>Waiting on Trump</h4>
<p><span class="s1">Netanyahu admitted he would have to await Trump’s long-awaited peace plan before moving to &#8220;instill sovereignty in the settlements and in other territories of vital importance while maintaining maximum coordination with the United States.&#8221; </span></p>
<p>While the State Department has often been in lockstep with Netanyahu&#8217;s government, going so far as to remove the term &#8220;occupied&#8221; from all references to the Palestinian territories from its website earlier this year, the administration appeared to undercut Netanyahu&#8217;s political posturing on Tuesday.</p>
<p>The White House quickly responded that<span class="s1"> there was &#8220;no change in United States policy at this time.&#8221;</span></p>
<p>More critically, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters Tuesday that President Trump would be willing to meet with the president of Israel&#8217;s arch-rival Iran &#8220;with no preconditions&#8221; – a gambit opposed by the newly-ousted Bolton.</p>
<p>The messaging from Washington appeared to dim hopes that Trump would provide Netanyahu with<span class="s1"> a diplomatic pre-election boost comparable to the movement of the US embassy to Jerusalem or the recognition of Israel&#8217;s annexation of the Golan Heights.</span></p>
<p><span class="s1">In Israel, the political opposition called out Netanyahu for what they deemed a cheap gambit for right-wing votes in the guise of a policy speech.</span></p>
<p><span class="s1">Netanyahu had taken the opportunity to attack opposition leader Benny Gantz for supposedly wishing to evacuate thousands of Israeli settlers, and </span><span class="s1">ended the broadcast by asking Israeli voters &#8220;to give me the mandate to do this … give me the opportunity to determine the borders of Israel.&#8221;</span></p>
<p><span class="s1">Yair Lapid, the second leader in the Blue and White party, pointed out that in Netanyahu’s many years as prime minister, &#8220;no one had stopped him from applying sovereignty to the Jordan Valley.&#8221; </span></p>
<p><span class="s1">What was most surprising, however, was the skepticism with which the move has been greeted by its intended audience. </span><span class="m_-8535691495176827455gmail-s1">Netanyahu&#8217;s target audience was the Israeli right, but many of them appeared distinctly unimpressed.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council in the West Bank, noted that before the previous elections Netanyahu discussed instituting Israeli sovereignty over all Jewish settlements. </span></p>
<p>&#8220;N<span class="s1">ow we are talking about just 10% of the territory,&#8221; he said. </span><span class="s1">Hoping for annexation fully backed by the Trump administration, settler advocates had received neither. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">&#8220;This could be interpreted in a very harmful manner by both President Donald Trump of the United States and the European Union,” Dagan warned, suggesting that Netanyahu had mistakenly signaled that Israel would be willing to accept less than full annexation. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The head of the pro-settlement Yamina party, Ayelet Shaked, said that unless Netanyahu brings the plan before the cabinet immediately, &#8220;everyone in Israel will know this is nothing but a cheap political spin.&#8221;</span></p>
<p>F<span class="s1">ormer defense minister and Yisrael Beitenu party leader Avigdor Liberman simply tweeted &#8220;dramatic announcement&#8221; accompanied by two laughing emojis. </span></p>
<p><span class="s1">It was Liberman&#8217;s refusal to</span><span class="s1"> join a narrow right-wing coalition with Netanyahu that forced the country into the upcoming round of elections.</span></p>
<h4>Coalition in question</h4>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Skepticism from right-wingers is well warranted. In every meaningful sense, Israel already applies sovereignty in the areas controlled by its military. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The military has based its eastwards security orientation on the Jordan Valley since 1967 and every Israeli prime minister has demanded that it be maintained in negotiations. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The latest Netanyahu plan would not expand Israeli control over Palestinians beyond where the military stands currently. Indeed, the premier noted that the plan &#8220;does not annex a single Palestinian, not even one.&#8221;</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Annexation would imply a change of legal status, but Israeli sovereignty is already a reality.</span></p>
<p><span class="s1">The UN Secretary General&#8217;s office, for its part, said the stated proposal would have &#8220;no international legal effect.&#8221;</span></p>
<p><span class="s1">Netanyahu has so often employed the tool of &#8220;dramatic announcements&#8221; that many local TV stations have stopped granting them full air time. </span><span class="s1">Typically, editors cut away from these conferences and return to their scheduled programming. </span></p>
<p><span class="s1">On Tuesday</span><span class="s1"> the Israeli public expected a far greater pre-election gambit from the wily Netanyahu, but was underwhelmed.</span></p>
<p>Only three hours after the televised speech, <span class="s1">Netanyahu was forced to evacuate his own campaign event in Ashdod as Hamas missiles were launched in his general direction. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">With only a week remaining before elections, polls show it is unlikely Netanyahu&#8217;s Likud will be able to form a narrow right-wing coalition capable of providing immunity for the embattled premier against impending corruption charges. </span></p>
A US deputy assistant secretary of state in Taiwan attending forum on fighting disinformation
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/us-backs-taiwan-against-beijings-fake-news-war/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/us-backs-taiwan-against-beijings-fake-news-war/<p>Intelligence officials and diplomats from the United States were among a group of overseas guests and speakers at a global workshop on disinformation that started in Taipei on Tuesday.</p>
<p>The US delegation was led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Scott Busby, in a visit that further gives substance to the Taiwan Travel Act signed into law by Donald Trump in March 2018.</p>
<p>At the forum, Busby highlighted Taiwan&#8217;s role in protecting human rights and freedoms throughout the Indo-Pacific region, including in Hong Kong.</p>
<p>“Taiwan’s 2020 elections are only a few months away, and China once again seeks to use disinformation to undermine the vote, divide the people and sow seeds of doubt in democratic systems” through numerous channels, he said.</p>
<p>Busby is in charge of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the US State Department.</p>
<p>Taiwan&#8217;s President Tsai Ing-wen said when meeting Busby that tactics used to spread disinformation continued to evolve in recent years and that Taiwan needed to further strengthen citizens&#8217; ability to identify disinformation.</p>
<p>The American Institute in Taiwan Director Brent Christensen, Washington&#8217;s de-facto ambassador to the self-governed island, also noted at the forum that Taiwan was always on the frontline of the battle against disinformation.</p>
<p>The US and other nations have much to learn from Taiwan about how to marshal academic, policy and technical resources to confront that kind of external pressure, said Christensen, highlighting the need to help citizens become “discerning consumers” of media reports.</p>
<p>Taiwan&#8217;s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said that dealing with false information and fake news would become more important than ever, now that presidential candidates would soon embark on their stumping tours and Taiwanese would soon be heading for polling stations.</p>
<p>The two-day workshop, themed defending democracy through promoting media literacy, is being held for the second year under the Taiwan-US Global Cooperation Training Framework implemented by the AIT, against a backdrop of what Taiwanese authorities called &#8220;rampant disinformation spreading in the run-up to the presidential and legislative elections in January.&#8221;</p>
<p>Japanese and Swedish representatives also joined this year&#8217;s discussion.</p>
<p>Taiwanese papers reported that some US experts had started advising, through the AIT, relevant government departments and agencies on how to tackle misinformation from China and identify suspicious accounts on social media that could be backed by China&#8217;s propaganda organs.</p>
<p>Taiwan has asked Facebook and Twitter to suspend or close a number of accounts spreading malicious news and rumors about the island.</p>
<p>Last month, Facebook and Twitter reportedly closed about 200,000 accounts with ties with Beijing that were responsible for a barrage of misleading reports and information about Hong Kong&#8217;s ongoing protests.</p>
Malaysian leader looks to Russia for arms and deals to rebalance his diplomacy away from China and the US
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/the-ties-that-bind-mahathir-to-moscow/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/the-ties-that-bind-mahathir-to-moscow/<p>Malaysia and Russia’s friendly ties were on full display at last week’s Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok, where Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad led a delegation aimed at spurring bilateral investment and defense links.</p>
<p>Speaking at the forum’s key event, Mahathir said Russian efforts to develop its most sparsely populated region “may mean the opening of a new market for Malaysia” and that Malaysian investors would flock to Vladivostok if greater economic opportunities in the region beckon.</p>
<p>Russian President Vladimir Putin has identified the development of his nation’s Far East as a priority in pursuit of deeper engagement with Asia-Pacific economies. Mahathir’s three-day visit follows recent high-level defense consultations, including sales pitches for Russian-made aircraft.</p>
<p>After locking horns with China in a bid to renegotiate costly infrastructure deals and snubbing US President Donald Trump’s trade war, Mahathir’s embrace of Russia signals his bid to diversify Malaysia’s big power diplomacy. Against the backdrop of an increasingly bitter Sino-US rivalry, the Kremlin is all too willing to oblige.</p>
<p>Moreover, a shared distrust of the Dutch-led criminal probe into the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 has improbably brought the two countries into closer alignment, including through greater military and technical collaboration.</p>
<p>Russia is offering to increase significantly its purchase of palm oil from Malaysia in a defense offset deal involving a Russian buy-back of grounded Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) MiG-29N jets, 10 of which were acquired in a 1995 deal that involved a palm oil trade-off.</p>
<p>A 2003 barter deal similarly saw Malaysia acquire 18 Russia-made Sukhoi Su-30MKM jet fighters. Malaysian Defense Minister Mohamad Sabu said in July that only four of the 28 Russian aircraft owned by Malaysia could actually take to the skies due to maintenance problems and a lack of spare parts.</p>
<p>Moscow is offering to equip the RMAF with two squadrons of new-generation stealth MiG-35 fighters in a procurement trade-off.</p>
<p>Victor Kladov, director of international cooperation and regional policy at Rostec State Corporation, was a prime mover in enhancing Russia-Malaysia defense relations during Mahathir’s previous 22-year tenure as prime minister. He was recently handpicked as Putin’s special emissary to build bilateral relations with Malaysia.</p>
<p><em>Click <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2018/11/article/as-us-china-tussle-and-joust-russia-moves-on-seasia/">here</a> to read an Asia Times report on Moscow’s efforts to enhance political, economic and defense cooperation with Southeast Asia.</em></p>
<p>The top Russian procurement official was quoted in Malaysian media saying that a decision on Malaysia’s purchase of defense assets would be expected at the EEF. Mahathir, however, signaled that the country was in no rush to open its coffers. “These are very expensive toys,” the 94-year-old premier said when asked if he sought to purchase new Russian aircraft.</p>
<p>“Spending money on expensive fighter planes is not very productive for us. We’re not going to war with anyone, but of course we have to keep up the level of technology in our own defense forces,” Mahathir told Russian state news agency Sputnik last week, adding that he was still studying the Russian proposal offer to take back and replace Malaysia’s older MiG fighters.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378663" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-378663" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen_170505_010330-e1568113129123.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="900" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen_170505_010330-e1568113129123.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen_170505_010330-e1568113129123-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen_170505_010330-e1568113129123-1568x882.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A Russia-made, Malaysia-owned MIG-29A fighter jet. Photo: Facebook</figcaption></figure>
<p>Shahriman Lockman, a senior analyst at the Institute of Strategic &amp; International Studies (ISIS) in Malaysia, told Asia Times that the Malaysian Air Force’s experience with Russian combat aircraft has been checkered.</p>
<p>“They tend to have poor serviceability rates and are expensive to maintain. If there are any major announcements in defense procurement, it wouldn’t be at the recommendation of the armed forces,” he said. The logic behind Mahathir’s embrace of Moscow “isn’t immediately clear to many in the Malaysian foreign policy establishment,” he added.</p>
<p>“In economic terms, Russia hardly looms large. Its GDP is smaller than Italy’s, and its GDP per capita is only slightly higher than Malaysia’s. Russia’s political and strategic influence in Southeast Asia remains weak. Nevertheless, Russia is seen as a potential source of investment and technology,” said the analyst.</p>
<p>“There appears to be enough willingness at the leadership level to make at least some inroads on basic defense collaboration,” Prashanth Parameswaran, a fellow at the Wilson Center&#8217;s Asia Program, told Asia Times. “Given past limitations, the key will be if the results match the ambition.</p>
<p>“There are concerns that political and economic considerations are being weighed far heavier than practical defense calculations. If there isn&#8217;t a proper balance struck, that does not bode well for Malaysia&#8217;s defense policy,” he added.</p>
<p>Apart from economics and security, the two sides are building political bonds. Both accuse the Dutch-led investigation into the 2014 downing of MH17 of being biased and politicized against Moscow, a controversial position the Malaysian premier reiterated during his interview with Sputnik last week.</p>
<figure id="attachment_362731" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-362731" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Ukraine-MH17-Crash-Site-TwitterGettyiStock-e1563438777470.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="896" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Ukraine-MH17-Crash-Site-TwitterGettyiStock-e1563438777470.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Ukraine-MH17-Crash-Site-TwitterGettyiStock-e1563438777470-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Ukraine-MH17-Crash-Site-TwitterGettyiStock-e1563438777470-1568x878.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The fiery aftermath of downed Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, July 17, 2014. Photo: Twitter/Getty/iStock</figcaption></figure>
<p>Mahathir told reporters he wanted the incident investigated by a “neutral body” comprised of international experts and claimed that findings by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) were &#8220;insufficient&#8221; to identify the party responsible for firing the missile that struck the ill-fated Malaysian aircraft as it flew over war-torn eastern Ukraine.</p>
<p>“I am not doubting [JIT’s] truthfulness. But there are certain things that they claim [that are] difficult for us to accept, particularly the identification of the people who actually fired the missile. That is very difficult for anybody to determine,” Mahathir said. He also insinuated that Russia was named responsible to allow victims’ families to file insurance claims.</p>
<p>Mahathir’s latest remarks come days after a Dutch foundation representing MH17 victims’ next-of-kin issued an open letter addressed to the Malaysian premier that called his stance “an incredible slap in the face of the relatives” and accused him of “causing confusion about the actual position of the Malaysian government.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Southeast Asian nation is part of the multinational JIT along with Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ukraine. Mahathir’s contrarian remarks on the issue have left observers speculating whether his stance constitutes his personal opinion or a policy revision given that Malaysia’s representative to the probe had publicly endorsed its findings.</p>
<p><em>Asia Times published a two-part investigative report on MH17 in July to mark the fifth anniversary of the tragedy, which can be read <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/07/article/five-years-on-no-answers-on-who-fell-mh17/">here</a> and <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/07/article/after-the-crash-information-wars-inflame-mh17/">here</a>.</em></p>
<p>Marcel van den Berg, an information and communications technology consultant and author of a popular MH17 blog, believes Mahathir’s stance on the matter has “nothing to do with evidence” but is rather a consequence of the country being politically sidelined after the MH17 probe began without its participation.</p>
<p>“From the start of JIT there has very likely been a lack of trust between Ukraine and Malaysia. The reason why Malaysia became a full member only four months after [the downing of MH17] has never been made public. Ukraine likely did not trust Malaysia because its close relations to the Kremlin,” he told Asia Times.</p>
<p>“The way the black boxes were recovered might have also done harm to the relationship,” said van den Berg in reference to a covert operation undertaken in late July 2014 by a Malaysian team to secure the flight data recorders and bodies of victims in cooperation with separatist rebels in Donetsk and their then leader Alexander Borodai.</p>
<figure id="attachment_362295" style="width: 1585px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-362295" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Malaysia-MH17-Malaysian-Airlines-Ukraine-2015-e1563344596985.jpg" alt="" width="1585" height="1173" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Malaysia-MH17-Malaysian-Airlines-Ukraine-2015-e1563344596985.jpg 1585w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Malaysia-MH17-Malaysian-Airlines-Ukraine-2015-e1563344596985-768x568.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Malaysia-MH17-Malaysian-Airlines-Ukraine-2015-e1563344596985-1568x1160.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1585px) 100vw, 1585px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The wrecked cockpit of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 at the Gilze Rijen airbase, October 13, 2015. Photo: AFP/Emmanuel Dunand</figcaption></figure>
<p>When the Netherlands and Australia announced last May that they would hold the Russian state legally responsible for the downing of MH17, Malaysian authorities were only notified of the politically sensitive move just prior to its announcement “to prevent leaking that intention to Russia,” said van den Berg. “It shows a lack of trust,” he added.</p>
<p>A Dutch-language report from <em>RTL Nieuws</em> published last June quoted a source directly involved in the state liability case who said Malaysia is viewed with suspicion in The Hague over its ties with Moscow. That secrecy has helped to validate Malaysian perceptions that Russia is being politically scapegoated by the probe, van den Berg believes.</p>
<p>“It could be Malaysia is not given all evidence to prevent leaks. It could be a reason for [Mahathir’s] statements,” he said. The report also cited Dutch concerns that Malaysia could be a Russian espionage target. Sources quoted in the story were unable to say whether Malaysians have tipped off Russians officials with regards to JIT’s agenda in the past.</p>
<p>During his recent interview with Sputnik, Mahathir claimed that Dutch authorities “were the ones who actually opened up the recordings and read the recordings” contained in MH17’s flight recorders. “We were not together with them when they were doing this,” said the premier, which van den Berg disputed.</p>
<p>“Malaysian experts did attend the session in the UK where the data of black boxes was downloaded and listened to. However, Mahathir states this was not the case, contrary to what is documented in the final report of the Dutch Safety Board (DSB),” he said, adding that Malaysia had not indicated any objection to the findings contained in the report.</p>
<p>“Malaysia should have trust in the Dutch prosecution and judges and wait until the evidence is presented in court. JIT is a neutral body. If Mahathir disagrees, he should present facts and not make statements on, for example, the black boxes, which are not true,” van den Berg believes.</p>
Rally on September 29 aims to predate Beijing’s National Day celebrations and send a message of solidarity
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/rally-supporting-hk-protesters-planned-in-taiwan/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/rally-supporting-hk-protesters-planned-in-taiwan/<p>Several political groups in Taiwan, including the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, are planning a mass rally outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei at the end of this month to show solidarity and lift the spirits of Hong Kong protesters.</p>
<p>The plan was made following a recent visit to Taiwan by three prominent Hong Kong activists including Joshua Wong to muster support for the city as demonstrators ramped up their demands in the former British colony.</p>
<p>Organizers expect the assembly will attract at least 10,000 Taiwanese, given the island&#8217;s strong pathos towards and affinity with Hong Kong.</p>
<p>The site of the rally – not far from the Presidential Palace – and the date – September 29 – were both deliberately chosen to predate Beijing&#8217;s National Day spectacles and military parade on October 1, the 70th anniversary of the Communist regime.</p>
<p>The Taipei event is also seen as an early National Day &#8220;gift&#8221; for Xi Jinping, when he is expected to emerge above the Tiananmen Gate for the big bash, to remind him that Taiwan stands behind Hong Kong and Taiwanese are watching the state of the city that may foreshadow what will happen to Taiwan if it is brought into Beijing&#8217;s fold.</p>
<p>Hong Kong is also likely to see fresh mob-like demonstrations on October 1 despite stepped-up security.</p>
<figure id="attachment_373086" style="width: 836px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-373086" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Screenshot-2019-08-21-at-5.32.50-PM.png" alt="" width="836" height="557" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Screenshot-2019-08-21-at-5.32.50-PM.png 836w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Screenshot-2019-08-21-at-5.32.50-PM-768x512.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 836px) 100vw, 836px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Protesters wave Taiwanese flags during a rally in Hong Kong against a now-suspended China extradition bill. Photo: Facebook</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_379045" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-379045" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/4e09.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A pro-Hong Kong rally on a university campus in Taichung. Photo: Facebook</figcaption></figure>
<p>Other than the DPP, organizers of the rally also include the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy, Citizen Front Taiwan, Taiwan National Students’ Union, General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan as well as the Hong Kong Outlanders, an association of Hong Kong emigrates, according to the Liberty Times and Taiwan Central News Agency.</p>
<p>&#8220;Under a &#8216;totalitarian threat,&#8217; the city that used to take pride in the rule of law and personal freedoms is now choked with tear gas, where rubber bullets fly in the streets as police clampdown on protesters, and many officers have become pathological attackers of the citizens they ought to protect,&#8221; read a joint statement by the organizers.</p>
<p>It was understood that the Hong Kong Economic, Trade and Cultural Office, the city government&#8217;s representative office in Taipei, has been tasked with monitoring the island&#8217;s sentiments and collecting the identities of Hongkongers there who may organize or attend rallies or activities in support of protests in Hong Kong.</p>
<h4>Immigration bonanza</h4>
<p>Meanwhile, Taiwan&#8217;s immigration authority has been responding to and processing a deluge of inquiries and applications from Hong Kong, with a 30% jump in emigration and residency applications filed by Hongkongers during the first eight months this year over the same period a year ago.</p>
<p>The surge since June, the outbreak of the drawn-out protests and unrest in the city triggered by a now-shelved China extradition bill, has been even stronger, when Taiwan&#8217;s National Immigration Agency had 55% more applications from Hongkongers than a year earlier. In 2018, 4,148 Hongkongers were granted residency.</p>
<p>Taiwan&#8217;s immigration agencies also told the Liberty Times that their promotion events held in Hong Kong since June usually attract far more attendees than before, with the number of consultations and applications being processed soaring by almost two-fold.</p>
<p>In one case, according to an immigration agent, a Hong Kong youngster who frequently took part in recent protesters decided to up stakes, borrow NT$6 million (US$192,550) from his relatives and emigrate to the island.</p>
<p><strong>Read more: </strong><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/helmets-goggles-sent-from-taiwan-to-hk-protesters/?_=231302">Helmets, goggles sent from Taiwan to HK protesters</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/taiwan-to-lure-the-rich-and-shelter-hk-protesters/?_=5381102">Taiwan to lure the rich and shelter HK protesters</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/07/article/hk-migrants-in-taiwan-fear-2nd-takeover-if-han-wins/?_=408607">HK migrants in Taiwan fear 2nd takeover if Han wins</a></p>
Parliamentarian Gladys Liu’s exposed past ties to Chinese Communist Party groups has ignited a political firestorm
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/chinese-influence-pervades-australian-politics/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/chinese-influence-pervades-australian-politics/<p>A legislator in Australia’s ruling coalition has admitted she had links with a communist group used by Beijing to advance its interests overseas. The potentially explosive revelation comes amid increasing scrutiny of political activities by ethnic Chinese in the country.</p>
<p>Gladys Liu, Australia’s first China-born member of parliament, confirmed on September 11 that she had an honorary role in the Guangdong provincial chapter of the China Overseas Exchange Association (COEA) from 2003-2015.</p>
<p>Then run by the Communist Party’s powerful State Council, the COEA is now part of the United Front Work Department, a shadowy state agency tasked with spreading Chinese influence abroad.</p>
<p>“I have resigned from many organizations and I am in the process of auditing any organizations who may have added me as a member without my knowledge or consent,” Liu said. “I do not wish my name to be used in any of these associations and I ask them to stop using my name.”</p>
<p>Liu did not refer to documents showing she had also belonged to the Shandong chapter of the COEA in 2010, but insisted she was “a proud Australian … and any suggestion contrary to this is deeply offensive.”</p>
<figure id="attachment_379050" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-379050" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Australia-Gladys-Liu-2019-e1568194259915.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1052" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Australia-Gladys-Liu-2019-e1568194259915.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Australia-Gladys-Liu-2019-e1568194259915-768x505.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Australia-Gladys-Liu-2019-e1568194259915-1568x1031.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Gladys Liu (R) speaking to voters in the May 18 election for the Melbourne electorate of Chisholm where one in five households speak either Mandarin or Cantonese. Photo: AFP/William West</figcaption></figure>
<p>She has also denied reports that she has links with Ji Jianmin, president of Huaxing Arts Troupe, a cultural organization that is overseen by the State Council.</p>
<p>Ji has been identified as a junket operator who brings high-profile gamblers to the Crown Casino in Melbourne: one of those he brought to Australia recently was Ming Chai, a cousin of China’s leader Xi Jinping.</p>
<p>Interviewed about her political beliefs on Sky News, Liu declined three times to describe China’s actions in the South China Sea as illegal, saying only that she backed the Australian government&#8217;s position on the issue.</p>
<p>Canberra does not take sides in the dispute but accepted a ruling by an arbitral tribunal at The Hague handed down in July 2016 that China’s wide-ranging claims to the sea in its nine-dash line map were not consistent with international law.</p>
<p>“Our relationship with China is one of mutual benefit and underpinned by our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. China is not a democracy and is run under an authoritarian system, Liu said in an apparent attempt to tamp down the controversy. “We have always been and will continue to be clear-eyed about our political differences, but do so based on mutual respect, as two sovereign nations.”</p>
<p>Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that Liu, who represents a Melbourne seat with a large Chinese population, is a “fit and proper” legislator.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379039" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-379039" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Australia-Gladys-Liu-Scott-Morrison-Parliament-Facebook-e1568193597783.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="880" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Australia-Gladys-Liu-Scott-Morrison-Parliament-Facebook-e1568193597783.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Australia-Gladys-Liu-Scott-Morrison-Parliament-Facebook-e1568193597783-768x422.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Australia-Gladys-Liu-Scott-Morrison-Parliament-Facebook-e1568193597783-1568x862.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Australian parliamentarian Gladys Liu (L) with Prime Minister Scott Morrison (R) in a file photo. Photo: Facebook</figcaption></figure>
<p>However, she may have breached laws against foreign political influence enacted last year and is now under pressure to resign her parliamentary seat from the opposition Labor Party.</p>
<p>If she eventually does, it would even one political score.</p>
<p>Sam Dastyari, a Labor senator, was forced to step down in late 2017 when it was revealed a company owned by Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo paid a legal bill for his office.</p>
<p>Dastyari came under fire for taking a pro-China position, in contradiction to his own Party’s line, on the South China Sea disputes in an interview with Chinese media. He also had notably asked Labor’s foreign affairs spokesman not to meet a political activist during a Hong Kong visit.</p>
<p>Huang, a tycoon with close ties to China’s Communist Party, was later banned from returning to Australia for legal breaches during his efforts to obtain citizenship. Spy agencies were concerned at his involvement with the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China, a communist agency.</p>
<p>He has since become embroiled in an inquiry by the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption into reports that he gave A$100,000 (US$68,747) to the state Labor Party, violating funding rules.</p>
<figure id="attachment_379079" style="width: 1591px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="wp-image-379079 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Australia-China-Huang-Xiangmo-Malcolm-Turnbull-2017-e1568195669154.jpg" alt="" width="1591" height="894" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Australia-China-Huang-Xiangmo-Malcolm-Turnbull-2017-e1568195669154.jpg 1591w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Australia-China-Huang-Xiangmo-Malcolm-Turnbull-2017-e1568195669154-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Australia-China-Huang-Xiangmo-Malcolm-Turnbull-2017-e1568195669154-1568x881.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1591px) 100vw, 1591px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Chinese real estate developer Huang Xiangmo and then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in a file photo. Photo: Twitter</figcaption></figure>
<p>The state’s laws prohibit developers from giving any political donations. Investigations center around Chinese Friends of Labor, a lobbying group that holds functions to attract donations from the Chinese community.</p>
<p>The inquiry heard this week that the cash was handed to a Labor staffer in a supermarket bag after a fundraising dinner at Sydney’s Chinatown in 2015. “Straw donors” were allegedly used to hide the source of the funds.</p>
<p>One of the organizers, former Labor legislator Ernest Wong, was accused of selling a table to Huang for A$100,000 and then trying to cover it up by having fake donors sign declarations. Wong has denied both allegations.</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t ask Mr Huang to donate and I know he wouldn’t be able to donate,” Wong said at the hearing this week. “In all my previous fundraising … $60,000 is pretty easy for me to raise from the community.”</p>
<p>Huang said he attended the dinner “to lend weight to the event so as to further attract attendants”, but insisted he hadn’t made the donation.</p>
<p>“I do not know any of the alleged donors of the sum or any of the ‘straw donors’ [nor] have I had any contact with them,” Huang said in a statement. Huang said any donations he had made “have been declared in accordance with Australian laws and regulations, openly and honestly.”</p>
<figure id="attachment_379083" style="width: 1588px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-379083" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Australia-Sam-Dastyari-2017-e1568196061334.jpg" alt="" width="1588" height="1092" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Australia-Sam-Dastyari-2017-e1568196061334.jpg 1588w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Australia-Sam-Dastyari-2017-e1568196061334-768x528.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Australia-Sam-Dastyari-2017-e1568196061334-1568x1078.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1588px) 100vw, 1588px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Sam Dastyari makes a public apology after revelations property developer Huang Xiangmo paid a bill incurred by his office. &#8211; Photo: AFP/William West</figcaption></figure>
<p>Dastyari, who was once Huang’s staunchest defender, told the inquiry that he now believed the billionaire was an “agent of influence” for Beijing. He had earlier, however, warned Huang he was likely under counter-intelligence surveillance at one of their last meetings.</p>
<p>The Independent Commission Against Corruption does not have policing powers but can recommend legal action against individuals found to have breached political funding rules. Jail terms apply for anyone found guilty.</p>
<p>Dastyari said in a tweet on Wednesday that Liu’s statement on the South China Sea was “shocking” and that she should resign her position. “She should be held to the same standard that I was – a standard the PM set,” his tweet said.</p>
Digital payments major funded by Alibaba and SoftBank is reportedly in talks to buy YES Bank co-founder’s stake
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/indias-paytm-may-pick-up-stake-in-private-bank/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/indias-paytm-may-pick-up-stake-in-private-bank/<p>Digital payments major Paytm is reportedly in talks to pick up stake in private sector lender YES Bank. One97 Communications, the group that owns Paytm, may buy the stake from Rana Kapoor, co-founder of YES Bank.</p>
<p>It may be recalled that YES Bank was under Reserve Bank of India&#8217;s scanner for its corporate governance practices and the under-reporting of bad loans. The central bank last Novermber denied Kapoor an extension to continue as managing director and CEO. Ravneet Gill was appointed MD and CEO of YES Bank from March 2019.</p>
<p>Kapoor and his associate entities owned 10.6% in the bank at the end of June 2019. Around 7.34% of the Kapoor family stake has been pledged with Reliance Nippon Asset Management Company.</p>
<p>One97 Communications founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma had held preliminary talks with Kapoor, <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/yes-bank-s-co-founder-rana-kapoor-likely-to-sell-his-stake-to-paytm-119091100042_1.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Business Standard </a>reports. The structure of the deal would depend on approval from the Reserve Bank of India, given that Sharma already owns a stake in Paytm Payments Bank, the daily added.</p>
<p>Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management has said it has not given any consent and is not in discussion with anyone about YES Bank’s pledged shares.</p>
<p>Founded in 2010 as a prepaid mobile and direct-to-home recharge platform, Paytm has now extended its services to areas such as payments bank, insurance, insurance broking, travel ticketing, and mobile wallet services. By March 2018 its merchant base was more than seven million.</p>
<p>When the Narendra Modi Government banned high-value currency notes in November 2016, that led to a spike in usage of cashless alternatives, including mobile wallets, which benefitted Paytm.</p>
<p>It also attracted funding from prominent venture capitalists such as Alibaba&#8217;s Ant Financial and SoftBank&#8217;s Vision Fund, and the company is currently valued at around US$ 15 billion.</p>
<p>However, of late, it has been facing stiff competition from Google Pay and Walmart&#8217;s PhonePe and that is taking a toll on Paytm&#8217;s finances. In the fiscal year that ended March 2019, Paytm&#8217;s parent One97 Communications Ltd had nearly tripled its losses.</p>
<p>On a consolidated basis, the company’s loss widened to 42.17 billion rupees ($588 million), as against 16.04 billion rupees ($224 million) in the year-ago period, as per the annual report it supplied to its shareholders, <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/71056580.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&amp;utm_medium=text&amp;utm_campaign=cppst" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Times of India</a> reports. The company is yet to file a copy of the same at the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.</p>
<p>The company’s expenses nearly doubled to 77.30 billion rupees ($1.08 billion) during the period, from 48.64 billion rupees ($679 million) in the previous year as it carried out various capital and operational expenditures to strengthen its brand.</p>
India claims Pakistan forgets that ‘terrorism is the worst kind of human rights violation’
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/unhrc-examines-kashmir-situation/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/unhrc-examines-kashmir-situation/<p>Traditional South Asian rivals India and Pakistan are back to trading charges over Kashmir after India revoked the state&#8217;s special constitutional status on August 5.</p>
<p>The scene for the two neighbors to battle it out, at a time when both countries have posted dismal records on basic rights, is the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).</p>
<p>Both India and Pakistan lay claim to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. They have fought three out of four wars over it. Two months after both countries gained independence, the ruling monarch of the state signed the instrument of accession choosing India. While Kashmir became India&#8217;s lone Muslim-majority state, Pakistan declared war that lasted for over a year.</p>
<p>Since India <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/india-revokes-kashmirs-special-status/?_=2896774">revoked Article 370</a>, which gave the state its &#8220;special status,&#8221; on Aug 5, Pakistan has tried to raise the issue of Jammu and Kashmir at various international forums. It also proposed an independent UN investigation to include Pakistan-administered Kashmir, if India should agree to it.</p>
<p>India issued a strong rebuttal to Pakistan over claims of human rights violation and possible genocide in Jammu and Kashmir at the UNHRC. India said, &#8220;Pakistan realizes that our decision cuts away ground from under its feet by creating obstacles in its continuing sponsorship of cross-border terrorism.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Pakistan delegation led by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said, “For the last six weeks, India has transformed Occupied Jammu and Kashmir into the largest prison on this planet.”</p>
<p>“India’s draconian emergency laws cannot be allowed to stand,&#8221; Qureshi said, pointing to the restrictions put in place days ahead of the move to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcate the state into union territories. This exposed the “true face of the largest democracy in the world,” he said.</p>
<h4>Concerns over abuse</h4>
<p>UN Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet on Monday expressed concerns over the restrictions imposed by the Indian government on Jammu and Kashmir. In her opening remarks at the 42nd meeting of the UNHRC in Geneva, she urged both India and Pakistan to show restrain and ensure that the human rights of Kashmiris are protected.</p>
<p>She said her office was receiving reports on the human rights situations on both sides of the Line of Control and was “deeply concerned about the impact of recent actions by the Government of India on the human rights of Kashmiris, including restrictions on internet communications and peaceful assembly, and the detention of local political leaders and activists.”</p>
<p>Reports have emerged claiming Indian security forces of being responsible for four deaths since New Delhi stripped Kashmir of its autonomy and imposed a crippling lockdown. But India’s national security advisor said on Saturday that apart from a “vocal minority” egged on by Pakistan, a “majority” of Kashmiris support its move, reports AFP. On the other hand, Baloch leaders also <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/what-about-genocide-in-balochistan-pakistan-called-out-by-baloch-leader-kashmir-1597799-2019-09-11">called out</a> Pakistan for committing &#8220;genocide and human rights violation&#8221; during the ongoing session in Geneva.</p>
<p>In its first-ever report on the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/07/10/kashmir-un-reports-serious-abuses">human rights in Kashmir</a>, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights raised serious concerns about abuses by state security forces and armed groups in both Indian and Pakistan-held parts of Kashmir. The report found that Indian security forces often used excessive force to respond to violent protests, including continued use of <a id="LPlnk64122" href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/07/12/india-investigate-use-lethal-force-kashmir" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable">pellet-firing shotguns</a>, even though they have caused a large number of civilian deaths and injuries. It also included lack of justice, enforced or involuntary disappearances, and alleged sexual violence.</p>
<p>The UN report also pointed out human rights violations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, which included restrictions on the right to freedom of expression and association, institutional discrimination against minority groups, and misuse of anti-terrorism laws to target political opponents and activists. It also expressed concern over enforced disappearances of people, noting that victim groups alleged that Pakistani intelligence agencies were responsible for the disappearances.</p>
<p>While the Indian government dismissed the report released on July 8 as a “false and motivated narrative,” Pakistan welcomed it. But Pakistan requested that sections be removed or amended in which the information was “not specific to Pakistan-Administered Kashmir but were general human rights concerns affecting all of Pakistan.”</p>
<p>Pakistan, which presented its case on the alleged human rights violation in India-administered-Kashmir yesterday, saw the UN chief&#8217;s opening remarks as a boost to its position. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was quick to respond and said, “I especially welcome the statement by the UNHCHR in Geneva today. I call upon the UN Human Rights Council to immediately set up the in-depth investigation commission to probe human rights abuses in Indian-administered Kashmir as recommended by the UNHCHR&#8217;s two reports on Kashmir. The time to act is now.”</p>
<p>Secretary Vijay Thakur Singh of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs led the Indian delegation along with former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria, who was <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/pakistan-downgrades-diplomatic-relations-with-india/?_=4840294">expelled</a> by Pakistan following the abrogation of Article 370.</p>
<p>Speaking for India under the &#8220;right to reply,&#8221; Singh said Pakistan &#8220;conducts cross-border terrorism as a form of alternate diplomacy.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Indian Parliament, on the other hand, &#8220;has been adopting a series of progressive legislations,&#8221; Singh said.</p>
<p>“The government “is taking affirmative actions to promote socioeconomic equality and justice for the underprivileged,&#8221; she added. The abrogation of Article 370 “will ensure that these progressive measures will also be fully applicable to our citizens in Jammu &amp; Kashmir and Ladakh.”</p>
<p>India continued to stand its ground that it was an internal matter. “These decisions were taken by our Parliament after a full debate that was televised and enjoyed widespread support. We wish to reiterate that this sovereign decision, like other legislations passed by Parliament, is entirely internal to India. No country can accept interference in its internal affairs, certainly not India,&#8221; Singh asserted.</p>
<p>Qureshi, however, slammed New Delhi’s reference to “cross-border terrorism” and expressed fear that India might “even attack Pakistan.” “If India has nothing to hide, it should allow unhindered access to the commission of inquiry,&#8221; Qureshi insisted.</p>
<p>India fielded Vimarsh Aryan, a Jammu and Kashmir diplomat, to counter Pakistan’s claim. Vimarsh Aryan said that Pakistan’s rhetoric “will not distract international attention from Pakistan’s persecution and elimination of religious and ethnic minorities – be it the Christians, Sikhs, Shias, Ahmadiyas and Hindus. This is the reason that Pakistan no longer publishes official statistics about its minorities as India does.”</p>
<h4>International stance</h4>
<p>According to experts, New Delhi deliberately did not send any ministerial level officer in order to notch down the importance of the issue on the international platform. It has maintained that Kashmir is an internal matter and has being reaching out to member nations for support. Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar reached out to his counterparts including Nepal, Bangladesh, Czech Republic, Slovakia Hungary and various European countries.</p>
<p>Despite an unprecedented lockdown in Kashmir for over a month now, India scored <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/india-scores-a-diplomatic-win-on-kashmir/?_=8048406">a big win</a> on Kashmir internationally. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which has traditionally sided with Pakistan on Kashmir, has largely supported India’s stance. US, UK, Germany and France expressed concern but were not keen on pushing over the issue. US President Donald Trump offered to mediate between India and Pakistan but that gesture was hastily withdrawn after India’s protest.</p>
<p>Pakistan hopes with the backing of China to persuade the 47-member UN body to pass a resolution by the end of the session of the global body on September 27. But it seems unlikely that UNHRC will assert concerns over human rights violation in Jammu and Kashmir especially without calling out Pakistan on its track record of the same.</p>
<p>The UN chief in her speech also called out India’s <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/indias-messy-politicised-bid-to-eject-illegals/?_=6246898">National Register of Citizens</a> verification process being carried out in the easter state of Assam. “I appeal to the government to ensure due process during the appeals process, prevent deportation or detention, and ensure people are protected from statelessness,” she stated.</p>
<p>Indian foreign ministry issued a statement in response, “For those who are not in the final list will not be detained and will continue to enjoy all the rights as before till they have exhausted all the remedies available under the law. It does not make the excluded person “Stateless’.”</p>
<p>“It also does not make him or her ‘a foreigner,’ within the legal meaning of the term. They will not be deprived of any rights or entitlements which they have enjoyed before,&#8221; the foreign ministry statement added.</p>
Cabinet veterans remain but new faces – and a possible future PM – appear ahead of post-Abe era
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/abe-reshuffles-cabinet-looks-for-future-leader/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/abe-reshuffles-cabinet-looks-for-future-leader/<p>Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday reshuffled his cabinet, replacing or moving 17 of his 19 ministers, with high-profile changes taking place at the defense and foreign ministries.</p>
<p>He also offered his first ministerial post to an up-and-coming politician who is widely touted as a future national leader and doubled the number of women in his cabinet – to a grand total of two.</p>
<p>The reshuffle had been widely expected after Abe’s political machine, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, together with its junior coalition partner, Komeito, won upper house elections in July. The reshuffle included 13 new faces as Abe seeks to liven up his administration’s image and prepare the LDP for its “post-Abe era.”</p>
<p>Abe is expected to become Japan’s longest-serving prime minister in November,<a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Five-things-to-know-before-Japan-s-cabinet-reshuffle"> but his term as LDP president – and prime minister – ends in 2021.</a> This timeline suggests that the new cabinet lineup will be the one in place as his long term of leadership enters its twilight.</p>
<h4>The core veterans</h4>
<p>Abe maintained two long-term political sidekicks in their positions: Finance Minister Taro Aso and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. <a href="https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2019/09/f8eeb159354c-abe-to-carry-out-major-cabinet-reshuffle-to-tackle-challenges.html">According to Kyodo News,</a> Abe will be leaning on these veterans to help navigate the country through a long-mooted consumption tax rise next month.</p>
<p>There were two high-profile seat changes. Hawkish Foreign Minister Taro Kono was appointed defense minister, while Economic Revitalization Minister Toshimitsu Motegi replaced him as foreign minister.</p>
<p>Kono will take the leading role as Japan upgrades its defense capabilities, increases defense spending and undertakes cost-sharing talks with the United States, which seeks greater spending by allies for US troops on foreign soil.</p>
<p>And he will be key to Abe’s long-term political ambition – a constitutional revision which would overturn post-World War II era constraints on the Japanese military.</p>
<p>Abe reportedly holds a high opinion of Motegi&#8217;s competence as a negotiator, particularly as regards his talks with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. Motegi, who has previously served as a deputy foreign minister, will also be a fresh face in talks with South Korea.</p>
<p>Seoul-Tokyo relations have plummeted amid a furious dispute that started in the historical arena over renewed demands for compensation for wartime forced labor.</p>
<p>The furies shifted to the diplomatic space and have now fully crossed into the economic sphere as Seoul and Tokyo slam export controls upon each other, potentially damaging the two countries trade partnership and roiling global supply chains.</p>
<p>The issue has even impacted security, after Seoul canceled an intelligence-sharing pact with Tokyo.</p>
<p>Kono had a stormy relationship with his South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung-wha, with press photographers capturing their stony expressions and guarded body language in recent talks.</p>
<h4>The fresh faces</h4>
<p>The surprise appointment was Shinjiro Koizumi, the 38-year-old son of ex-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, as environment minister. The dashing-looking Koizumi Junior, who is popular, outspoken and is set to marry a TV star, has often been mentioned as a future prime minister. Japanese media speculate that he will offer Abe’s brain trust a fresh look.</p>
<p>His appointment is a high-profile brief, but could prove a poisoned chalice. Questions are being asked over how to deal with more than <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/koreans-fear-fukushima-radioactive-water-dump/">one million tons of radiated water that has accumulated at the damaged and decommissioned Fukushima nuclear plant.</a></p>
<p>If Tokyo decides to dump it in the Pacific, there is bound to be international controversy. On Tuesday, the outgoing environmental minister suggested that a sea dump was a serious option, although the findings of a panel of experts remained to be heard.</p>
<p>Abe also doubled his number of female cabinet members to two with the appointment of former speed skater and lawmaker Seiko Hashimoto as minister in charge of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.</p>
<h4>The bigger picture</h4>
<p>The reshuffle, which had long been anticipated, comes at a time when both opportunities and challenges face the island nation.</p>
<p>On one hand, Japan enjoys virtually full employment, to the point where it is importing labor, and is positioned to enjoy the ever-increasing fruits of free trade agreements with both Asia-Pacific nations and the EU.</p>
<p>It is also leveraging an inbound tourism boom and is preparing for the feel-good and high-spending factors of the Rugby World Cup, which starts this month, and next summer’s Tokyo Olympics.</p>
<p>On the other, its export numbers and growth are being relentlessly hammered by the cross-Pacific trade war at a time when wage growth is static and its economy is failing to generate innovative SMEs.</p>
<p>Diplomatically, Tokyo is under major pressure from Washington to sign a rushed free-trade deal, relations with Seoul are at an all-time nadir in the post-war years, and international eyes are on the Fukushima radiated-water controversy.</p>
<p>In the midst of these various dynamics, the long-term political ambition of Abe, who is widely seen as a historical revisionist, looks out of touch. He aims to secure a change to Article 9 of Japan’s US-dictated, Pacifist constitution. The change would allow Japan to possess fully deployable armed forces, so becoming, in Abe’s words, a “normal nation.”</p>
<p>While his coalition has political weight, few observers expect him to be able to gain the numbers needed in a national referendum that is required as a precursor to any constitutional change.</p>
‘If we are in a new Cold War, Hong Kong is the new Berlin,’ pro-democracy campaigner tells Berliners
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/wong-speaks-in-berlin-en-route-to-the-us/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/wong-speaks-in-berlin-en-route-to-the-us/<p>Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong has met with Germany&#8217;s foreign minister in Berlin as he seeks support overseas for the pro-democracy movement in his city – but Beijing said it &#8220;strongly disapproved&#8221; of the meeting, which it claimed was &#8220;disrespectful.&#8221;</p>
<p>The 22-year-old activist posted a photo of himself and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on his Twitter account, saying they spoke on the &#8220;protest situation and our cause [for] free elections and democracy in HK.&#8221;</p>
<p>Beijing reacted angrily to the meeting in the Reichstag during an event organized by Bild daily, saying &#8220;it is extremely wrong for German media and politicians to attempt to tap into the anti-China separatist wave.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;It is disrespectful of China&#8217;s sovereignty and an interference in China&#8217;s internal affairs,&#8221; Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.</p>
<p>&#8220;I want to stress once again that Hong Kong affairs are purely China&#8217;s internal affairs. No foreign government, organization or individual has the right to intervene,&#8221; Hua said, adding that Beijing &#8220;strongly disapproves&#8221; of the meeting.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378906" style="width: 716px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-378906" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screenshot-2019-09-11-at-11.09.35-AM.png" alt="" width="716" height="460" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong is seen with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Berlin. Photo: Facebook</figcaption></figure>
<h4>&#8216;HK the new Berlin&#8217;</h4>
<p>Wong spoke briefly in Berlin, likening his protest-racked home city to the Cold War-era German capital and vowing to &#8220;protest until the day that we have free elections.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;If we are now in a new Cold War, Hong Kong is the new Berlin,&#8221; he said, referring to the postwar split between communist East Berlin and the democratic West.</p>
<p>&#8220;&#8216;Stand with Hong Kong&#8217; is much more than just a mere slogan, we urge the free world to stand together with us in resisting the autocratic Chinese regime,&#8221; he said.</p>
<h4>Out on bail</h4>
<p>The young campaigner, who began his career as an activist at just 12 years of age, became famous during the &#8220;Umbrella Movement&#8221; protests in 2014, which failed to win any concessions from Beijing. He served time in jail for those protests and is now a politician, having founded the pro-democracy outfit Demosistō, which demands that people in Hong Kong be allowed to decide their own affairs.</p>
<p>Wong has been arrested twice in 10 days and was lucky to get to Germany – after being stopped by police at Hong Kong airport on Monday. But he was released to continue his trip after a hearing in the Eastern Magistrates&#8217; Court, which allowed him to change the date of his departure on his bail certificate, which was said to be &#8220;a bail certificate error.&#8221;</p>
<p>His lawyer said Wong had no intention of breaching his bail conditions and would be back by September 23, as planned.</p>
<p>&#8220;This kind of political repression will not stop us from seeking support from around the world, and the police thought I was at risk of absconding,&#8221; Wong told reporters outside the court on Tuesday, before hopping on a plane to Germany and after spending time in a detention cell.</p>
<p>He plans to hold talks with other German politicians before taking part in a public talk at Humboldt University on Wednesday evening.</p>
<p>Before leaving he said he would appeal to bipartisan German parliamentarians and the Foreign Office to support protesters, to stop exporting weapons and crowd control tools to Hong Kong police, to review Germany&#8217;s asylum laws and to postpone trade negotiations with the Hong Kong government.</p>
<p>He will also campaign for the passing of a German bill on human rights and democracy in Hong Kong. This is despite Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam agreeing last week to a popular demand by retracted a hated extradition bill, which ignited protests that have raged in the Asian financial hub for more than three months.</p>
<p>He is not expected to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has just been to China. Merkel said on Friday that the rights and freedoms of people in Hong Kong &#8220;must be guaranteed&#8221; after meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing.</p>
<p>Wong told Bild<em>,</em> Germany&#8217;s best-selling newspaper, he was disappointed by Merkel making light of the situation in Hong Kong when she visited China. He said she could have more &#8220;clearly called for free elections in Hong Kong&#8221; when meeting the press with Li in Beijing on Friday.</p>
<p>After Germany, Wong plans to fly to Washington, DC, where he is likely to meet some lawmakers in a bid to garner support for protesters demanding more democracy in his home city.</p>
<h4><strong>Mattis backs Hong Kongers </strong></h4>
<p>Separately, former US defense secretary Jim Mattis, the first Pentagon chief in President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration, has told a forum in New York that protests in Hong Kong were not entirely a domestic matter for China, and that the US should at least lend moral support.</p>
<p>Mattis took a potshot at &#8220;Beijing&#8217;s attempt&#8221; to ram through the extradition bill in a bid to allow Hong Kong residents to be made to stand trial on mainland China, calling it a violation of the &#8220;one country, two systems&#8221; principle for the former British territory.</p>
<p>Mattis&#8217; remarks contrast with Premier Li&#8217;s stance on Hong Kong during a press conference with Merkel on Friday that Chinese people had &#8220;the wisdom to take matters into their own hands.&#8221; But the former US defense chief dodged questions about a mass rally last weekend outside Washington&#8217;s consulate in Hong Kong, where a huge crowd called for Trump to &#8220;liberate&#8221; the city.</p>
<figure id="attachment_328335" style="width: 1117px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-328335" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/EVMEnSqvfStrRgb6zD5FEHzHI2AqfDXhw43NSMONzUg.jpg" alt="" width="1117" height="628" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/EVMEnSqvfStrRgb6zD5FEHzHI2AqfDXhw43NSMONzUg.jpg 1117w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/EVMEnSqvfStrRgb6zD5FEHzHI2AqfDXhw43NSMONzUg-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1117px) 100vw, 1117px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">US Vice-President Mike Pence met Anson Chan (left), Hong Kong&#8217;s former chief secretary for administration and a Beijing critic, in the White House in March. Photo: Handout</figcaption></figure>
<p>The US Congress may officially start debating a proposed Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, a bill spearheaded by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and supported by the city&#8217;s pro-democracy bloc, to sanction figures who suppress the city&#8217;s freedom and democracy.</p>
<p>The legislation, if passed, would compel the US secretary of state to assess on an annual basis whether Hong Kong is “sufficiently autonomous” to justify Washington&#8217;s continued offer of a special trade status to the city, as a separate customs jurisdiction from China, under the US-Hong Kong Policy Act.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378602" style="width: 940px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class="size-full wp-image-378602" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/53deb318-983b-4350-8894-9123123089bf_0.jpg" alt="" width="940" height="626" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/53deb318-983b-4350-8894-9123123089bf_0.jpg 940w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/53deb318-983b-4350-8894-9123123089bf_0-768x511.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam says the 1,400 US firms operating in her city also benefit from the preferential trade status the city enjoys. Photo: AFP</figcaption></figure>
<p>In reply, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday that foreign interference in the city&#8217;s internal affairs would be unwelcome.</p>
<p>&#8220;Any particular provisions applying to Hong Kong from the US [like the preferential trade status] are not exclusively for the benefit of Hong Kong but are also mutually beneficial&#8230;. There are close to 1,400 US companies in Hong Kong, who will of course enjoy the benefits of positive bilateral relationship&#8230;.</p>
<p>&#8220;But to interfere into Hong Kong&#8217;s internal affairs in the name of protecting freedoms and liberties is totally unnecessary, because we ourselves have the obligation and the duty to comply with provisions in the Basic Law,&#8221; she said.</p>
<p><strong>Read more:</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/li-reaffirms-vows-on-hong-kong-as-merkel-visits/">Li reaffirms vows on Hong Kong as Merkel visits</a></p>
Some fear giving batons to off-duty cops could create more conflict, but others say it’s fair and justified
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/concern-over-possible-abuse-of-hk-police-moves/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/concern-over-possible-abuse-of-hk-police-moves/<p>Hong Kong police say giving out batons to off-duty police and setting up WhatsApp channels for the public to report “non-urgent” violence is just a response to the ongoing protests, but the move has sparked concern that it could be abused.</p>
<p>The police explained on Tuesday at their daily press conference that off-duty police officers would be allowed to carry extendable batons to enable them to enforce the law and protect public safety.</p>
<p>Senior officers emphasized that off-duty cops would follow the Police General Orders strictly as the use of batons is regarded as a “use of force”. They also need to show their warrant cards when a situation allows that and to report back on when and how they use the weapon.</p>
<p>Wong Wai-shun, a senior superintendent in operations, said the new measure would help the city to be safer as officers could handle any urgent situation faster. “I believe that this will help build confidence to restore order in the city.”</p>
<p>But police did not disclose how many officers had handed in reports on when they used batons during the months-long protests.</p>
<p>Members of the public have raised concerns, citing a large number of cases from eyewitnesses and news footage during protests over the past three months clearly showing on-duty police threatening to or hitting protesters or passers-by when they liked. They alleged that officers did not follow the Police General Orders strictly.</p>
<p>Some images clearly showed that a number of people and protesters suffered head and upper body injuries after being hit by police and many had to go to hospital. The latest case involved a 17-year-old school boy who suffered head injuries when a group of six to seven police hit him with batons in Tai Po MTR station on September 7.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8igKj9va9yg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>People fear the situation could get worse if officers are not in police uniform.</p>
<p>James To, the Democratic Party lawmaker and deputy chair of the Legislative Council’s security panel, warned that the move could intensify already high tensions between the community and the police and may lead to more conflict. He asked the force to rethink the new measure, Radio Television Hong Kong reported.</p>
<p>He said an off-duty officer may have disclosed his police identity before using a baton to subdue a student, but for bystanders, it may look like a man attacking the student, which could cause bystanders to intervene.</p>
<p>Icarus Wong from the Civil Rights Observer said he was concerned about monitoring whether off-duty officers use their batons in an appropriate and restrained way, Ming Pao Daily reported. He said if an off-duty officer takes a baton out when he has a dispute with a citizen but does not disclose his police identity, it is difficult for the citizen to file a complaint.</p>
<p>But Gary Chan Hak-kan, a lawmaker from the pro-establishment Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, who chairs the Legislative Council’s security panel, said he believed the measures could help officers enforce the law. Officers would not use their batons if citizens do not break the law and create disorder.</p>
<p>Executive councilor Ip Kwok-him believed the moves related to police security and self protection. He questioned why radical protesters would be violent toward off-duty officers.</p>
<h4>WhatsApp channels</h4>
<p>Meanwhile, the police have set up 10 “anti-violence” hotlines on WhatsApp for the public to report “non-urgent” violence anonymously.</p>
<p>The force urged the public to provide intelligence – photos, recordings or videos – about violence to assist them in stopping riots. But they said the hotline is not for general reporting and the officers would not answer incoming calls.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/FinanceFellow/photos/a.112035443472580/128742358468555/?type=3&amp;theater" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A photo</a> surfaced on Facebook on Tuesday night showing a man, said to be in the audience at a World Cup qualifying match, hanging an anti-government banner in the Hong Kong Stadium.</p>
<p>Lawmaker Charles Mok said setting up hotlines was a form of denunciation and a way to restrain people&#8217;s freedom of speech and assembly, while another lawmaker, Lam Chuk-ting from Democratic Party, said police wanted to create a threatening atmosphere, Apple Daily reported.</p>
<p>Previously, Kong Wing-cheung, a senior superintendent of police public relations, denied claims laid against police about indecent assaults and abuse of force when people were detained in police stations. He slammed people for making serious accusations while wearing face-masks or making anonymous complaints.</p>
<p>Netizens also launched a “#wtsappforhk” campaign, calling for people to send photos and videos to show police brutality.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378956" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-378956" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/HK-police-hotlines-.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/HK-police-hotlines-.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/HK-police-hotlines--768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/HK-police-hotlines--1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/HK-police-hotlines--300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/HK-police-hotlines--600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A news report with 10 hotlines set up by Hong Kong Police. Photo: Facebook, HK Police</figcaption></figure>
Tech giant ramps up services, seeks to undercut rivals as it prepares for Apple TV+ launch in November
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/apple-cuts-prices-at-iphone-11-launch/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/apple-cuts-prices-at-iphone-11-launch/<p>Apple unveiled its iPhone 11 on Tuesday with a price cut for the most basic models while also laying out plans for streaming and gaming services as it bids to weather the slump in the global smartphone market.</p>
<p>Price appeared to be a key consideration as the tech giant reduced the entry level price for the iPhone 11 to $699 and undercut rivals for its gaming and streaming television subscriptions.</p>
<p>Apple unveiled three versions of the iPhone 11, including &#8220;Pro&#8221; models with a triple camera and other advanced features starting at $999 and $1,099, unchanged from last year&#8217;s prices, touting upgraded features including ultra-wide camera lenses.</p>
<p>The surprise from Apple was the reduction in the starting price at $699, down from $749 for the iPhone XR a year ago even as many premium devices are being priced around $1,000.</p>
<p>The new iPhones are &#8220;jam-packed with new capabilities and an incredible new design,&#8221; Apple chief executive Tim Cook told a launch event in Cupertino, California as the company set plans to sell the new handsets on September 20.</p>
<h4>Content as &#8216;sweetener&#8217;</h4>
<p>Apple&#8217;s announcements appeared to be aimed at emphasizing value as the company looks to shift its business model to reduce its dependence on smartphones and tie in digital content and other services to its devices.</p>
<p>&#8220;We got a stream of nonstop product launches, with content being used as a sweetener,&#8221; said Avi Greengart, analyst and consultant with Techsponential.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think the iPhone 11 is compelling and may convince people to upgrade earlier than they might have otherwise given the lower price and longer battery life, not just an improved camera.&#8221;</p>
<p>With the new devices and services, &#8220;I think there are more reasons to stay with Apple than to defect from Apple,&#8221; said Patrick Moorhead, analyst at Moor Insights &amp; Strategy.</p>
<h4>Streaming and gaming</h4>
<p>Apple TV+ service will launch on November 1 in more than 100 countries at $4.99 per month and will include a &#8220;powerful and inspiring lineup of original shows, movies and documentaries.&#8221;</p>
<p>While Apple&#8217;s streaming service will have limited content at first, its price is below the $6.99 for the forthcoming Disney+ service and the more expensive plans from Netflix.</p>
<p>&#8220;Clearly Cupertino is looking for market share coming out of the gates with these surprising price points that we loudly applaud,&#8221; said Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities.</p>
<p>Apple is featuring scripted dramas, comedies and movies as well as children&#8217;s programs in the service, which will compete against streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon.</p>
<p>&#8220;With Apple TV+, we are presenting all-original stories from the best, brightest and most creative minds, and we know viewers will find their new favorite show or movie on our service,&#8221; said Zack Van Amburg, Apple&#8217;s head of video.</p>
<p>Apple said customers who purchase an iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, iPod touch or Mac will get the first year of the service for free.</p>
<p>The company&#8217;s online gaming subscription service, Apple Arcade, will launch next week, offering exclusive titles for mobile and desktop users.</p>
<p>The new service, which will also cost $4.99 per month, will include more than 100 game titles made for Apple devices and will be available in some 150 countries.</p>
<p>&#8220;You can&#8217;t find these games on any other mobile platform or subscription service. No game service ever launched as many games, and we can&#8217;t wait for you to play all of that,&#8221; product manager Ann Thai told the Apple media event.</p>
<p>Apple also unveiled updates to its iPad tablet and Apple Watch smartwatch, also emphasizing stable or lower prices with cuts to older versions.</p>
<p>&#8220;We think the lower iPhone 11 price point and trade-in program will help promote upgrades, specifically in China, while the Apple Arcade and TV+ offerings will help accelerate services growth,&#8221; CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino said in a note about Apple.</p>
<p>Apple shares ended the formal trading day up slightly to $216.70, while streaming television rivals Netflix and Disney both finished down about 2%.</p>
<p>AFP</p>
More than 60 asylum seekers quietly moved to Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/australias-pacific-guantanamo-quietly-emptied/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/australias-pacific-guantanamo-quietly-emptied/<p>Only a handful of people remained at a remote migrant detention center on Papua New Guinea&#8217;s Manus Island this week, as authorities quietly empty a facility often dubbed &#8220;Australia&#8217;s Guantanamo.&#8221;</p>
<p>Refugees, police and government officials said a maximum of nine people remained at the facility, which has become emblematic of Australia&#8217;s controversial policy of turning away women, children and men fleeing war zones and detaining them in Pacific camps.</p>
<p>Successive Australian governments argued the policy was needed to deter migrants ready to make the dangerous sea voyage to Australia.</p>
<p>But it has been a political and legal headache for Canberra, prompting tens of millions of dollars of payments in damages and earning the opprobrium of the United Nations.</p>
<p>Papua New Guinea&#8217;s Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Petrus Thomas said on Tuesday that nine migrants – mostly refugees – remained on Manus, which was opened in 2001.</p>
<p>Five of those had built families there and one was involved in local legal proceedings, so is unlikely to leave. &#8220;The rest have been flown to Port Moresby,&#8221; he said, referring to the 60-plus asylum seekers that had been there until recently.</p>
<p>Manus provincial police commander David Yapu said that transfers had occurred on a daily basis since last week, with most asylum seekers headed for Port Moresby. One of those was detainee and award-winning author Behrouz Boochani, who said he was transferred there a &#8220;few days ago.&#8221;</p>
<p>Six months ago there were still more than 500 would-be migrants to Australia kept in Papua New Guinea, living in conditions that Amnesty International described as &#8220;tantamount to torture.&#8221;</p>
<p>Official figures are not frequently updated, but hundreds are believed to have been resettled in the United States under a deal between Australia and then US president Barack Obama.</p>
<p>Others were transferred to Australia for medical treatment or sent to Port Moresby, where they await resettlement.</p>
<p>The Refugee Action Coalition said the transfers off Manus did not spell an end to Australia&#8217;s policy of asylum &#8220;turnbacks&#8221; or resolve the fate of the refugees still stuck in Papua New Guinea.</p>
<p>The non-governmental group accused Canberra and the Papua New Guinea government of &#8220;shifting the detention deckchairs&#8221; in a rush to declare Manus closed.</p>
<p>– <em>AFP</em></p>
Japan is providing Africa with an alternative to China by pouring in cash. But is it too little, too late?
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/abes-african-pitch-short-on-muscle-creativity/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/abes-african-pitch-short-on-muscle-creativity/<p>In his quest to restore Japan to economic relevance in the Chinese century, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has happened upon an unlikely battleground: Africa.</p>
<p>China long ago became a top-tier Africa investor. Even before Xi Jinping’s <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-massive-belt-and-road-initiative">Belt and Road</a> initiative, Beijing was building roads in Uganda, dams in Sudan, power grids in Nigeria and conference halls in Ethiopia.</p>
<p>Japan, on the other hand, had long demurred on pouring big money into a cacophonous region its overseas-aid industrial complex didn’t quite fathom.</p>
<p>That’s about to change, as Abe recently declared to more than 20 African leaders in Yokohama. “We will do whatever it takes,” Abe said, “to assist the advancement of Japanese companies into Africa” and, in turn, help hasten growth and development there.</p>
<p>But when Abe, who was speaking at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development on August 30, got down to specific investment numbers, the tone among visiting dignitaries probably pivoted from glee to resignation.</p>
<p>The US$20 billion Japan aims to pump into Africa over three years is nice. But compared to the <a href="https://japantoday.com/category/politics/japan-to-host-africa-aid-forum-as-china-looms-large">$60 billion</a> China’s Xi Jinping is deploying, along with another $10 billion from mainland companies, Japan remains a laggard.</p>
<p>In Yokohama, Abe was unwittingly reminding the globe why Japan is likely to continue falling behind China. And why the economy will continue to disappoint.</p>
<h4>Getting into the game</h4>
<p>Tokyo’s $20 billion, properly targeted, could help narrow Africa’s financing gap. Abe also is tossing financial incentives at Japan Inc, including taxpayer-backed Africa-related loans. In late August, for example, Toyota signed a deal with Ivory Coast to put a<a href="https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reuters.com%2Farticle%2Fus-toyota-tsusho-ivorycoast%2Fivory-coast-toyota-sign-assembly-plant-deal-idUSKCN1VJ1IL&amp;data=02%7C01%7C%7C8343c0d2c29646a0c1df08d73519b676%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637036256853059575&amp;sdata=lWiBGpmt%2BVBBLy5ld3YT84Aw1CT482gRbinOi7BZlKs%3D&amp;reserved=0"> giant factory</a> into one of West Africa’s fastest-growing economies.</p>
<p>Nissan, meanwhile, is setting up operations in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana. Honda is doing the same in Nigeria. Wooing more household Japanese names would help create new jobs across Africa and strengthen the quality of local labor pools.</p>
<p>This could catalyze a China-versus-Japan turf war from which Africa can benefit.</p>
<p>One pull factor for Africa is that Japan is selling a less exploitative model. Its “quality infrastructure” is an alternative to China’s reputation for shoddy quality and projects that can leave governments heavily in debt.</p>
<p>Beijing favors a <a href="https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/employment-law/pages/global-china-belt-and-road-initiative.aspx">turnkey model</a> – flying in labor and materials in ways that benefit China Inc more than the communities in which projects are built.</p>
<p>Yet Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party really needs to get serious.</p>
<p>Data on Africa investment inflows show a lag. As of 2017, Japan’s $1.8 billion of foreign direct investment in Africa put it behind Italy – roughly $9 billion in total.</p>
<p>In 2017, Africa received more than $4 billion of Chinese money, roughly 10% of all inflows. That made China’s FDI into Africa 4.7 times greater than Tokyo’s.</p>
<h4>Bulk up, build respect</h4>
<p>Abe also needs to get serious at home. In a world dominated by strongmen – from Xi to Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines – there’s no greater currency than economic strength. If Abe wants to project it globally, he needs to start by building real muscle at home.</p>
<p>Since 2012, he’s largely tried to export Japan’s way back to vibrancy. A <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-abenomics/boj-focus-on-yen-made-japan-inc-complacent-says-abenomics-critic-idUSKCN1U50AT">weaker yen</a> isn’t making Abe’s economy more productive or innovative. It’s not unleashing a startup boom to increase Japan’s tally of tech “unicorns.” It’s not curbing runaway national debt and it’s certainly not helping Tokyo get a handle on a rapidly-aging population and shrinking birthrate.</p>
<p>Nothing would turn Chinese heads faster than fixing these deficiencies and boosting gross domestic product. That goes too for US President Donald Trump, whose view of Japan as a subordinate power stems in part from its lack of economic oomph.</p>
<p>If Abe wants to build stronger ties with Africa, it follows, he must do more than write checks – he should open Japan’s markets. Abe has done just that with the European Union: He signed a giant free-trade deal.</p>
<p>He also spearheaded efforts to keep the Trans-Pacific Partnership alive after Trump pulled out of the deal.</p>
<h4>Time for trade talks</h4>
<p>Abe should send in his trade negotiators.</p>
<p>In 2018, Japanese <a href="https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jetro.go.jp%2Fen%2Freports%2Fstatistics&amp;data=02%7C01%7C%7C8343c0d2c29646a0c1df08d73519b676%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637036256853059575&amp;sdata=X5OmEvBIWaw7TjKluNfmBKduKNoBK%2FRaIPi6l9mFLJs%3D&amp;reserved=0">trade with Africa</a> was $17 billion, half the amount in 2008. China’s, by sharp contract, was $200 billion. Becoming a bigger blip on Africa’s radar screen would increase Tokyo’s clout in a resource-rich and geopolitically vital region.</p>
<p>At the same time, lowering Japan’s trade defenses would help consumers and import more competitive forces to modernize Japan’s financial system.</p>
<p>Africa is as good a place as any for Abe to engage in a proxy war with China. Unfortunately, his unimaginative strategy is a microcosm of why Japan is struggling to keep up globally.</p>
Could be the biggest ever
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/jpmorgan-chase-picked-to-lead-aramco-ipo/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/jpmorgan-chase-picked-to-lead-aramco-ipo/<p>JPMorgan Chase has been picked as the investment bank to lead Saudi Aramco&#8217;s initial public offering, which could be the biggest ever, people close to the matter told AFP on Tuesday.</p>
<p>The US banking giant was notified by the Saudi company of the selection on Tuesday, the sources said, adding that Aramco envisions an offering on a local exchange followed by one on an international exchange that has not yet been picked.</p>
<p>Exchanges in New York and Hong Kong are heavily lobbying the Saudi group for the listing, the sources said, adding that Tokyo is not in the running.</p>
<p>Aramco has also chosen Goldman Sachs to work on the offering and other banks are expected to be added at a later date, sources said.</p>
<p>Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser said earlier Tuesday on the sidelines of an energy conference in Abu Dhabi that the company expects to undertake the offering &#8220;very soon&#8221; but that the timing is up to the government.</p>
<p>Aramco has said it plans to float around five percent of the state-owned company in 2020 or 2021.</p>
<p>The mammoth initial public offering forms the cornerstone of a <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/saudi-shakeup-suggests-aramco-ipo-barreling-ahead/">reform program envisaged by the kingdom&#8217;s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed binCrown</a>, to wean the Saudi economy off its reliance on oil.</p>
<p><em>AFP</em></p>
Sexton, Barrett and Kolisi lead the charge as they aim for glory in Japan
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/fantastic-five-have-that-world-cup-x-factor/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/fantastic-five-have-that-world-cup-x-factor/<p class="p1">They all have that X-factor. The ability to light up a game with moments of magic.</p>
<p class="p1">From a Test match point-scoring stalwart to a World Cup winner, here are five players that could end up grabbing the headlines when the Rugby World Cup kicks off in Japan on September 20.</p>
<h4 class="p1">Johnny Sexton | Ireland</h4>
<p class="p1">The reigning World Rugby Player of the Year heads to his third World Cup having featured in only one of four of Ireland&#8217;s warm-up matches because of injury.</p>
<p class="p1">Last week, the influential fly-half returned during the victory against Wales to win his 84th cap in the number 10 jersey. Sexton trails only the man he displaced at fly-half, Ronan O&#8217;Gara, as Ireland&#8217;s all-time points scorer, with 770. O&#8217;Gara scored 1,083 international points.</p>
<p class="p1">Sexton is joined by Munster&#8217;s Conor Murray in forming an experienced half-back partnership under head coach Joe Schmidt.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378882" style="width: 400px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img class="wp-image-378882 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Beauden-Barrett-.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="285" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">New Zealand&#8217;s fly-half Beauden Barrett has struggled with his kicking game. Photo: AFP / Juan Mabromata</figcaption></figure>
<h4 class="p1">Beauden Barrett | New Zealand</h4>
<p class="p1">The 28-year-old was a world champion four years ago and travels to Japan along with brothers Scott and Jordie after a difficult few months.</p>
<p class="p1">Barrett, a former two-time World Rugby Player of the Year, has been moved to full-back by head coach Steve Hansen to accommodate Richie Mo&#8217;unga in the number 10 shirt and deal with an injury to Damian McKenzie.</p>
<p class="p1">Despite persistent doubts about the accuracy of his goal-kicking, Barrett&#8217;s talent and speed in open play, especially on the counter-attack, make him one of the most dangerous players in the world.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378887" style="width: 400px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class="wp-image-378887 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Leone-Nakarawa.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="266" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Leone Nakarawa is known as &#8216;The Octopus&#8217; in the Fiji camp as he fends off a tackle. Photo: AFP / Thierry Breton</figcaption></figure>
<h4 class="p1">Leone Nakarawa | Fiji</h4>
<p class="p1">Known as ‘The &#8216;Octopus,’ he is one of four Fiji squad members at the World Cup who won a gold medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016.</p>
<p class="p1">The Racing 92 second-row stands 1.98 meters (6 feet 5 inches) tall. His ability to use his long arms to off-load the ball can be almost undefendable. His reach also means he is dangerous disrupting opposition ball high in the air at lineouts as well as during driving mauls.</p>
<p class="p1">With 59 caps, the 31-year-old Nakarawa is one behind Campese Ma&#8217;afu as the Pacific Islanders most experienced player heading to Japan.</p>
<h4></h4>
<figure id="attachment_378890" style="width: 400px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img class="wp-image-378890 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Siya-Kolisi.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="287" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Siya Kolisi, right, stands out as a powerful ball carrier for a resurgent South Africa. Photo: AFP / Christiaan Kotze</figcaption></figure>
<h4 class="p1">Siya Kolisi | South Africa</h4>
<p class="p1">South Africa&#8217;s first black Test captain will look to follow in the footsteps of Francois Pienaar and Jon Smit by guiding the Springboks to a World Cup title.</p>
<p class="p1">The Stormers flanker, who wears the same number six as Pienaar did in 1995, has been a key part of the Rassie Erasmus-led turnaround of the national team after pitiful defeats to Italy and Wales in the space of seven days in November 2016.</p>
<p class="p1">Kolisi missed the last-gasp draw with world champions New Zealand in June but was at his all-encompassing best in the victory against the All Blacks last September, a side they will face again in Japan in their opening pool match.</p>
<p class="p1">A lot of his most important work is done in the shadows but he stands out as a ball-carrier an abrasive forward pack.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378895" style="width: 400px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class="size-full wp-image-378895" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Jordan-Petaia.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="267" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Jordan Petaia, right, has a strong defensive game to go with his attacking flair as he wraps up flanker Michael Leitch. Photo: AFP / Martin Bureau</figcaption></figure>
<h4 class="p1">Jordan Petaia | Australia</h4>
<p class="p1">The uncapped 19-year-old has had his Test debut delayed since early August because of continuing fitness problems but could become the Wallabies&#8217; youngster World Cup player.</p>
<p class="p1">Although he is not a direct replacement, Petaia&#8217;s power and threatening running give Australia another option as he deals with the loss of sacked Israel Folau.</p>
<p class="p1">If he stays fit, he will compete with a wealth of quality for a starting spot in the Aussie backline. His international bow will most likely come against Uruguay or Georgia in the final two pool matches.</p>
<p class="p1"><em>– AFP</em></p>
Last year China had its first baby born after ovarian tissue cryopreservation and re-transplantation
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/frozen-ovary-transplants-help-women-become-moms/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/frozen-ovary-transplants-help-women-become-moms/<p>A new medical center in Shanghai that freezes ovarian tissue for women suffering fertilty-related medical conditions or those wishing to delay having children has already proved a success for one new mother.</p>
<p>Last year, a woman in China gave birth after her ovary was transplanted back into her body at Shanghai&#8217;s Long March Hospital. It was the first such birth in China.</p>
<p>The 28-year-old woman had been suffering from premature ovarian failure and had tried almost every kind of assisted reproductive technology to become pregnant, including in vitro fertilization, but to no avail, according to Shanghai papers. But the technique of transplanting cryopreserved ovarian tissue eventually helped her become a mother.</p>
<p>The woman’s left ovary was removed and strips of tissue were frozen in November 2016 and subsequently activated and transplanted back into the patient in May the next year. She became pregnant shortly after the treatment and delivered a healthy baby boy in 2018.</p>
<p>Reproductive endocrinologists at Shanghai&#8217;s Human Fertility Preservation Center freeze and store healthy embryos, sperm and eggs to help the citizens of the city of 25 million people.</p>
<p>The center is part of the city&#8217;s prestigious Fudan University. Dr Xu Congjian, the hospital&#8217;s president, told the Shanghai Daily that the demand for fertility treatment was rising as women are growing older, adding that Beijing&#8217;s move to scrap the decades-old one-child policy had also boosted demand for services, as couples in their 40s and 50s were starting to have children.</p>
<p>Xu also said that many female cancer patients in their prime childbearing age want to have babies and are freezing their eggs prior to undergoing chemotherapy.</p>
<p>The technology of ovarian tissue storage has been in wide use in Europe for more than a decade, after Belgian gynecologist Jacques Donnez reported the first successful birth after ovarian tissue cryopreservation and transplantation in 2004. There have been more than 160 cases of healthy childbirths from eggs from transplanted ovaries across Europe and the US.</p>
<p>A number of patients at the city&#8217;s human reproductive technology center have already had their ovarian tissue frozen and stored, waiting to be transplanted back when they are ready for pregnancy.</p>
Analysts say the aggressive demand for gold is behind an effort to break up the global hegemony of the US dollar
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/gold-fever-russia-and-china-buying-up-reserves/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/gold-fever-russia-and-china-buying-up-reserves/<p>The yellow metal generates no cash, grows no crops, provides no shelter and supplies no useful service. It hasn’t been official money for decades, says Brett Arends, of Market Watch.</p>
<p>It isn’t any kind of “safe haven” because it always seems to be crashing or booming or crashing again.</p>
<p>But here’s the funny thing: It’s been going up. Big time. And for none of the usual reasons.</p>
<p data-v-54a96eec="">China and Russia have been stockpiling gold, helping to propel the precious metal to its highest level in more than six years, Fox Business reported.</p>
<p data-v-54a96eec="">The People’s Bank of China has added about 100 tons of gold to its reserves since December. Russia has bought 106 tons of the precious metal this year.</p>
<p data-v-54a96eec="">“They can read the writing on the wall,” Euro Pacific Capital CEO Peter Schiff told FOX Business, adding that the two countries are “preparing for the world where the dollar is no longer the reserve currency.”</p>
<p data-v-54a96eec="">China’s gold reserves now stand at more than 1,950 tons. Russia has more than 2,200 tons, and has the fifth-largest stockpile by country.</p>
<p data-v-54a96eec="">Beijing’s gold purchases, which amount to 100 tons since December, come as it has been less aggressively buying Treasuries amid the US-China trade war. In June, China fell behind Japan as the world’s largest holder of US debt, a title it had held since May 2017.</p>
<p data-v-54a96eec="">Meanwhile, Russia has more than quadrupled its reserves over the past decade amid its promise to break its reliance on the US dollar.</p>
<p data-v-54a96eec="">Russia’s central bank has bought 106 tons so far this year.</p>
<p data-v-54a96eec="">Trade war uncertainty and worries about the health of the global economy have helped propel gold prices to their highest level in six years. The precious metal is up almost 18% this year and last month hit $1,550 an ounce for the first time since April 2013.</p>
<p data-v-54a96eec="">“Prices of precious metals look set to remain elevated, but their recent rally looks overdone,” wrote commodities analysts at the London-based Capital Economics. The firm sees gold hovering around $1,500 an ounce for the rest of the year.</p>
<p>And there’s an obvious reason for China to buy gold, according to Market Watch.</p>
<p>It wants to break up the global hegemony of the US dollar — the hegemony that former French President Charles de Gaulle called America’s “exorbitant privilege.” It wants to make its own currency, the renminbi, a world player. Gold reserves should add to world confidence in the Chinese currency.</p>
<p>Do China and Russia really need piles of this arcane yellow metal to break the US dollar’s stranglehold on the world’s financial system?</p>
<p>Can’t they just issue new currency backed by their economic output, as Europe did when it launched the euro 20 years ago?</p>
<p>Maybe, or maybe not. But that seems to be the way they’re betting.</p>
‘Accessed computers of his juniors on the pretext of training them’
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/indian-goldman-executive-stole-millions-to-pay-poker-debts/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/indian-goldman-executive-stole-millions-to-pay-poker-debts/<p>A senior Goldman Sachs executive in India was arrested Tuesday for allegedly duping the US bank out of millions of dollars to pay off online poker debts in China, police said.</p>
<p>Press reports said that Ashwani Jhunjhunwala, a vice president at the bank&#8217;s Bangalore office, swindled approximately $5.3 million and wired the money to China.</p>
<p>&#8220;The matter came to light during an internal audit done by the firm. The money was transferred to banks in China illegally,&#8221; police commissioner Bhaskar Rao told AFP.</p>
<p>A report in The Newsminute said that the executive accessed computers of his juniors on the pretext of training them and made them log into their systems.</p>
<p>Later, as captured on security cameras, he kept sending them on errands and used their systems to transfer money into a private bank account, reports said.</p>
<p>Goldman Sachs&#8217;s Indian unit was not immediately available for comment.</p>
<p><em>AFP</em></p>
The task of cultivating the right conditions for cultured seawater pearls has always been a big challenge, experts say
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/high-end-nanzhu-farming-boosts-seaside-village/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/high-end-nanzhu-farming-boosts-seaside-village/<p>Famed French fashion icon, Coco Chanel, once said: “A woman needs ropes and ropes of pearls.”</p>
<p>It is perhaps, for this very same reason, that pearl farming has helped to lift a seaside village out of poverty in South China&#8217;s Guangdong province.</p>
<p>Nanzhu, or south pearl in English, refers to the pearls produced in the Beibu Gulf off the coast of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Leizhou peninsula of Zhanjiang in Guangdong, China Daily reported.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re going for quality over quantity, for the high-end Nanzhu,&#8221; said He Debian who founded Zunding Pearl Co. Ltd. in Liusha village on the Leizhou peninsula in 2017.</p>
<p>In late July, workers were busy harvesting pearls at the pearl farm. The harvest took place earlier than usual, because of the scorching heat. &#8220;The temperature goes up quickly, killing the living creatures,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Oysters thrive in temperatures between 10 C and 30 C. When the temperature goes higher, oysters die.&#8221;</p>
<p>The task of cultivating the right conditions for cultured seawater pearls has always been a big challenge, requiring reformed mollusk-farming practices, close production process control, and specific natural conditions.</p>
<p>As early as 2014, He cooperated with marine institutes to develop seawater pearl oysters, which are less vulnerable to the environment and more sustainable, the report said.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have improved 70 percent of the oysters at the pearl farm of 40 hectares, increasing the survival rate from 20 percent to more than 40 percent over the years,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>He gives oysters to villagers, who grow them for about a year and a half before inserting the nuclei. The company then organizes the artificial &#8220;seeding,&#8221; harvest and pearl sales.</p>
<p>The improved cultured pearls sell at 18,000 yuan (US$2,510) per kilogram on average compared to 5,800 yuan previously.</p>
<p>In 2018, the company made a profit of 15%, with 35 million yuan of annual turnover. Participating villagers can become company shareholders and benefit from the profits.</p>
<p>&#8220;I have increased my income. Now, I have some extra money to build savings,&#8221; said Wang Qinying, who works in pearl quality control.</p>
<p>In the past decade, Nanzhu production has decreased dramatically.</p>
<p>&#8220;The prevalence of interbreeding across generations caused the mollusks to decrease in size. Prematurely inserted irritant beads and abbreviated farming practices led to smaller, low-quality pearls that paled in comparison to their larger freshwater counterparts,&#8221; He said.</p>
<p>The company employs 300 people, including those from 50 impoverished families in the village. After getting reliable work, all the families have been lifted out of poverty.</p>
<p>A pearl industry park is expected to be built in the village in September, to create a pearl industry cluster, and develop pearl-themed tourism by attracting more investors.</p>
<p>According to Bourdage Pearls, a seawater pearl is a pearl produced by a saltwater mollusk in a saline environment. The three most common types of saltwater pearls are Akoya pearls, Tahitian pearls and South Sea pearls. The shape of the saltwater pearl is naturally more round than freshwater cultured pearls.</p>
<p>Seawater pearls are more expensive than freshwater cultured pearls because the saltwater oyster only produces one pearl at a time. Freshwater mussels can produce up to 30 pearls at a time.</p>
Bolton did not want to negotiate with the Taliban, North Korea or Iran
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/why-bolton-was-fired/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/why-bolton-was-fired/<p>It was very important for President Donald Trump to fire National Security Adviser John Bolton rather than let him resign. But that does not erase the risk to Trump in foreign policy and his initiatives with North Korea, the Taliban and Iran.</p>
<p>Trump now has to minimize his risk exposure. His best chance for a diplomatic victory is probably with North Korea.</p>
<p>Trump&#8217;s Presidency and his foreign policy is closely related to what transpired with Bolton. Had Bolton&#8217;s offer to resign – apparently considered on the night before be was fired – been submitted, Trump would have had to either accept it or reject it, but he then could not fire Bolton. So it is clear he put him off and fired him the next morning.</p>
<p>Trump needed to fire Bolton so he could say that Bolton and he didn&#8217;t agree on the main points of Trump&#8217;s foreign policy. And in truth, if they did not agree, why was Bolton still there?</p>
<p>When Trump sidelined Bolton to Mongolia while he met with Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, it was clear already that Bolton should quit. It is unprecedented for a President to send his national security adviser on a minor mission while the President carries out a significant national security responsibility.</p>
<p>It is quite true that North Koreans hate John Bolton. But they also dislike Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and for that matter the entire State Department. But Pompeo was not cast off, Bolton was. This tells us it wasn&#8217;t the North Koreans who mattered, it was the relationship between Trump and Bolton.</p>
<p>The three foreign policy issues that caused most of the divisiveness were: 1.) the negotiations with the Taliban; 2.) the negotiations with the North Koreans, and; 3.) the possibility of Trump meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the United Nations General Assembly later this month.</p>
<p>For better or worse, Trump believes he can make deals with the Taliban, Kim and Rouhani. Likewise, he saw Bolton as obstructing his efforts and undermining his policies.</p>
<p>Trump is trying to implement the most powerful argument he can make while seeking re-election: that he alone could end the Afghanistan war and limit US military engagement overseas. Until now he has largely been hogtied by circumstances and advisers. Most of all, Trump does not like being told what he cannot do.</p>
<p>One of the reasons Trump is so exercised over these matters is that he wants to be reelected the same way Eisenhower was first elected. In that election campaign, challenged to come up with a policy toward the Korean war by President Harry Truman, then-General Dwight D. Eisenhower responded in a speech on October 24, 1952 that, &#8220;If elected I shall go to Korea&#8230;&#8221;</p>
<p>Trump is also ready to go to North Korea if Kim gives him the right opportunity.</p>
<p>Only hours before Bolton was fired, the North Koreans did two things: they said they wanted to re-start the stalled negotiations with the United States, and they fired off a couple of missiles to show they were not weak or afraid of negotiating with Trump and the United States.</p>
<p>Underlying the North Korean shift in emphasis is a strong desire to find a rapprochement with the United States and an acceptable process toward denuclearization. According to private unofficial talks last week with the North Koreans (the source cannot be revealed), the North Koreans made it clear they feared instability in South Korea on one hand, and China on the other, and see the United States as a guarantor of stability in the regime. But to translate these North Korea geopolitical concerns into concrete form, the North Koreans have to find a way to elaborate the denuclearization process.</p>
<p>In the past, attempts at denuclearization have been tied to international parties and the IAEA specifically. But for the North Koreans, the IAEA is a non-starter because of past differences with IAEA findings and inspections. Similarly, internationalizing an essentially bilateral deal puts the North Koreans at a diplomatic, political and strategic disadvantage – especially if China or Russia are involved.</p>
<p>Moreover, there is no reason such an approach makes sense, just as it is senseless and diverging to engage the United Nations. Both North Korea and the United States ought to be able to establish mechanisms for technical dialogue needed to flesh out a general denuclearization undertaking.</p>
<p>On the US side, it would mean that DOD, CIA and Energy would be the technical negotiators (the Department of Energy is responsible for nuclear weapons development), as opposed to the State Department, which lacks the technical knowledge and is regarded by North Korea as an impediment.</p>
<p>On their side, the North Koreans would have to involve their military, intelligence and scientific establishment. This formula would probably appeal to both President Trump and Kim, although Secretary of State Pompeo could raise objections. Given Trump&#8217;s handling of Bolton, that impediment is not too great, particularly if Pompeo is otherwise engaged.</p>
<p>That &#8220;otherwise&#8221; engagement would be to try and find a way to restart the Taliban talks if the Taliban will agree to a mutual ceasefire (without which the negotiations will have failed) and to see how to structure the process of engaging the Iranians –what could be achieved and how?</p>
<p>This is an especially difficult and delicate situation because America&#8217;s critical allies – Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Israel – will be strongly on the lookout for any process that leaves them vulnerable to future Iranian nuclear weapons, and/or to Iran&#8217;s military-political operations across the crescent of Iraq, Lebanon and Syria (with a Saudi/UAE concern about Yemen thrown in).</p>
<p>The danger for Trump is to take on too much at a time when election politics are rising rapidly, and while some in the House of Representatives want to impeach him.</p>
<p>But Trump could fail in the execution of his program – especially foreign policy, where he has to avoid seeming weak, confused or overly indulgent to dictators. By the same token, bringing home troops from a losing 18-year-long war, where nothing has been accomplished other than the deaths of many American soldiers, is one of Trump&#8217;s primary goals.</p>
<p>One is reminded of the famous statement by the late Senator from Vermont, George Aiken speaking about the Vietnam War when he said: &#8220;Why don&#8217;t we declare victory and get out?&#8221; Translated to Afghanistan, Trump could execute a similar policy as an alternative to negotiations.</p>
<p>Trump also has to keep in mind that Bolton&#8217;s opposition to negotiating with the Taliban, Iran and Kim appeals strongly to Republican conservatives, and the broader electorate. How Trump will be able to manage that, and everything else, is the big question.</p>
<p>Based on the relative merits, President Trump would be smart to pursue a deal with Kim and set aside his Taliban and Iranian initiatives, which could easily backfire.</p>
The departure of the China hawk might clear the way for a trade-and-technology deal
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/boltons-exit-raises-the-odds-of-us-china-trade-deal/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/boltons-exit-raises-the-odds-of-us-china-trade-deal/<p>President Trump needs a trade deal with China as quickly as possible to avert a sharp slowdown of the US economy, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/six-in-10-americans-expect-a-recession-and-higher-prices-as-trumps-approval-rating-slips-washington-post-abc-news-poll-finds/2019/09/10/d99f3408-d2d7-11e9-ab26-e6dbebac45d3_story.html">recent polls</a> have made clear. There won’t be any deal unless the US finds some way to walk back its efforts to keep China’s top telecommunication firm Huawei out of world markets. The summary dismissal today of National Security Adviser John Bolton increases the prospects of a deal, although the immediate motivation for Bolton’s departure most likely lies elsewhere.</p>
<p>China and the United States seemed on track for a trade deal in early December 2018 when XI Jinping and Donald Trump dined on the sidelines of a summit meeting in Buenos Aires – except that Canada arrested Huawei CFO Meng Wangzhou at the Vancouver Airport. Trump didn’t know about the arrest, but his national security adviser John Bolton did, as Bolton later said in a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/dec/06/john-bolton-huawei-cfo-meng-wanzhou-arrest-extradition-us">radio interview</a>.</p>
<p>A few weeks earlier, the US government began a campaign to persuade its allies to exclude Huawei from the rollout of 5G broadband networks, as the Wall Street Journal first reported <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/washington-asks-allies-to-drop-huawei-1542965105?tesla=y">Nov. 23, 2018</a>. The Meng Wanzhou arrest, the first use of extraterritorial powers in the case of an alleged sanctions violation, was a declaration of war on the Chinese national champion. In the ensuing months, the United States banned US technology firms from supplying components and software to Huawei and demanded that its allies boycott its 5G network systems.</p>
<p>All of the presidential orders targeting Huawei were drafted by Bolton’s staff at the National Security Council offices in the Executive Office Building next to the White House. Trump’s national security adviser didn’t devise the campaign against Huawei, but he represented the views of the US intelligence community to the White House and helped formulate the rationale for the effort to derail Huawei’s market leadership. Huawei, the US government alleged, might build secret back doors into its routers and steal data, compromising the cybersecurity of any country it supplied. So dangerous was Huawei, US <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-huawei-tech/u-s-will-rethink-cooperation-with-allies-who-use-huawei-official-idUKKCN1S517C">officials alleged</a>, that the US might cut back on intelligence sharing with such countries.</p>
<p>This in my view was a willful deception on the part of America’s spies, intended to distract attention from a different sort of problem. I do not believe that Ambassador Bolton set out to deceive anyone, but it seems likely that he was captured by the intelligence community’s agenda. As I wrote in Asia Times <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/07/article/us-china-tech-war-and-the-us-intelligence-community/">July 7</a>:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">The US intelligence community’s alarm at Chinese leadership in 5G mobile broadband has less to do with a threat of Chinese eavesdropping than with the likelihood that electronic eavesdropping will become next to impossible, thanks to quantum cryptography. I have had a number of conversations on the topic with US as well as Chinese sources, but this conclusion appears obvious from public sources.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">America’s intelligence community spends nearly $80 billion a year, including $57 billion for the National Intelligence Program and $20 billion for the Military Intelligence Program. Signals intelligence (SIGINT), mainly electronic eavesdropping, takes up the lion’s share of the budget. Among other things, the National Security Agency recorded more than half a billion calls and text messages of Americans in 2017.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">In response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Security Agency admitted – for the second time — that it improperly eavesdropped on Americans. The spooks’ ability to tap the conversations of prospective terrorists, foreign leaders like Germany’s Angela Merkel and pretty well anyone it wants is a source of enormous power as well as justification for continued funding.</p>
<p>In the meantime, America’s efforts to suppress Huawei have taken on a life of their own. In the Wall Street Journal today, financier George Soros, a bitter political enemy of President Trump, demanded to know if Trump will “sell out the US on Huawei” by including the technology issue in an overall trade deal. Soros wrote, “China is a dangerous rival in artificial intelligence and machine learning. But for now it still depends on about 30 U.S. companies to supply Huawei with the core components it needs to compete in the 5G market. As long as Huawei remains on the entity list, it will lack crucial technology and be seriously weakened… However, President Trump may soon undermine his own China policy and cede the advantage to Beijing.”</p>
<p>I do not think that the ban on exports of US components to Huawei will slow down its efforts in 5G broadband. With few exceptions, these components are easily sourced elsewhere, and China has had a blank check program to eliminate dependence on US technologies since March 2018, when the US banned sales of handset chips to China’s ZTE.</p>
<p>Still, it is odd to find the liberal Mr. Soros attacking President Trump, as it were, from the right. The US Establishment wants to throw whatever monkey-wrenches it has into the works in the hope of delaying Huawei long enough to figure out what it wants to do next. It doesn’t appear to be working. Last week Deutsche Telekom became the latest European country to inaugurate 5G networks using Huawei equipment.</p>
<p>Morris Lore reports at <a href="https://www.lightreading.com/trump-is-losing-the-european-war-against-huawei/a/d-id/753980">lightreading.com</a>, “Before Deutsche Telekom&#8217;s 5G launch, Three, Vodafone and BT-owned EE had all turned on Huawei-built 5G networks in the UK, despite government indecision on the future role of Chinese suppliers. Vodafone is also using Huawei&#8217;s equipment to support 5G services in Italy, Romania and Spain, explaining why it has been Europe&#8217;s most vociferous opponent of the anti-Huawei campaign. Elsewhere, Huawei is live in Switzerland and Finland, where it equips Sunrise and Elisa respectively.”</p>
<p>To America’s great embarrassment, the whole of Eurasia has ignored its imprecations against Huawei. Bolton’s high-profile campaign, joined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, has failed, and President Trump doesn’t like to fail.</p>
<p>Bolton is quite the China hawk. In January 2018, three months before he took office, he argued in the Wall Street Journal that the US should station troops in Taiwan. China is glad to see the back of him. Global Times editor Hu Xijin tweeted, “Bolton has never played a positive role on China issues either, although it won&#8217;t be the reason why he was fired. I believe people who hold extreme political stance are paranoid and difficult to get along with. The news of Bolton being fired likely drew applause in the White House.”</p>
<p>Just what form a trade-and-technology deal might take is far from clear. The US cannot simply let the Huawei matter drop, but it might agree to comprehensive testing and screening of Huawei products. Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei told New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman that Huawei is “open to sharing our 5G technologies and techniques with US companies so that they can build up their own 5G industry.” He added that American companies can “change the software code. In that case, the US will be assured of information security.”</p>
<p>In short, Huawei has offered to call the American bluff about its purported data theft and open its proprietary technology to American inspection. The intelligence community and the China hawks, in general, will not like that, and Bolton’s departure removes one hawk from a particularly important nest.</p>
<p>My view is that Huawei’s dominance of a game-changing technology does indeed present a threat to the United States, but that John Bolton’s weasel war dance won’t do the United States any good. If the US wants to maintain technological superiority, it has to create national champions that can best Huawei, and that requires a massive commitment of federal R&amp;D funding. In the meantime, President Trump may have to compromise with China to avoid a recession and defeat in the 2020 elections.</p>
Rugby is starting to take off in Vietnam ahead of this month’s World Cup
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/rice-terraces-and-turtle-shell-scrums/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/rice-terraces-and-turtle-shell-scrums/<p class="p1">Barefoot and muddied, youngsters sprint across a makeshift pitch in rural Vietnam, passing the ball in a game of touch rugby in a country where few people have ever heard of the sport.</p>
<p class="p1">They belong to Vietnam&#8217;s only rugby program for locals, rolled out for children in a remote commune where some players have to travel by boat to training sessions often held against a backdrop of rice terraces and curious onlookers.</p>
<p class="p1">Few knew anything about rugby when they joined the scheme, marveling at the egg-shaped ball, but are now keen fans planning to closely follow the Rugby World Cup in Japan, which starts on September 20.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;I haven&#8217;t watched international rugby &#8230; but if possible I will surely watch the Rugby World Cup,&#8221; said 14-year-old Bao Cham, a player on the Silver Fox team in Kim Boi district.</p>
<p class="p1">With the first Rugby World Cup held in Asia, organizers are hoping to boost rugby&#8217;s popularity in backwaters like Kim Boi, where most kids count Lionel Messi as a hero but have never heard of New Zealand great Dan Carter.</p>
<p class="p1">Vietnam is one of the few countries in Southeast Asia with no rugby federation, and international games are not regularly aired on cable television. That means the sport remains on the margins, making the rugby clinic in Kim Boi something of an oddity.</p>
<p class="p1">Launched in 2015, the ChildFund Pass It Back program is aimed at teaching youngsters life skills, with lessons on health or planning for the future interspersed with rugby training sessions.</p>
<p class="p1">The players aged 11 to 16 meet regularly on weekends to play touch rugby, which has none of the full-contact version&#8217;s heavy tackling.</p>
<p class="p1">There are now more than 6,100 players and coaches in the program, more than half of them female, in Vietnam, Laos, East Timor and the Philippines.</p>
<p class="p1">Some players will go to Japan in March with ChildFund – traveling by plane for the first time – for rugby training and life-skills sessions.</p>
<p class="p1">Rugby wasn&#8217;t the most obvious choice. Football, volleyball and <em>sepak takraw</em> – a traditional game sometimes described as kick volleyball – were also floated as options when the program was piloted in Laos, but rugby was considered the most gender-neutral.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;The young girls in the commune wanted to try this new sport that they had never seen before. It wasn&#8217;t considered a boys&#8217; sport,&#8221; said John Harris, regional operations officer for the scheme.</p>
<p class="p1">Still, some participants in Vietnam had to push back against entrenched sexism.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378473" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-378473" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Vietnam-rugby-coach-e1568089408585.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1067" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Rugby coach Bui Thi Lan at a rugby clinic in Kim Boi district. Rugby is not seen as a boys&#8217; sport in Vietnam. Photo: AFP/Manan Vatsyayana</figcaption></figure>
<p class="p1">Coach Bui Thi Lan was told by her in-laws that she should give up rugby after marrying and having a baby – in line with expectations, women should avoid playing rowdy sports.</p>
<p class="p1">Lan would have none of it. She came back to coaching four months after giving birth and now teaches 60 children four times per week.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;Rugby brought me money so that I could take care of myself, working and studying at the same time,&#8221; she said at a recent training session, where she fed her baby between modules.</p>
<p class="p1">Battling inequality wasn&#8217;t the only hurdle. There was no vocabulary in Vietnamese for the sport and some terms were coined on the fly.</p>
<p class="p1">A scrum is <em>mai rua,</em> which means &#8216;turtle shell&#8217; in Vietnamese, while the name for rugby is simply <em>bong bau duc</em>, which translates to &#8216;oval ball.&#8217;</p>
<p class="p1">Rugby was not always so foreign to Vietnam, though it has never been widespread among locals.</p>
<p class="p1">The French were believed to be the first to bring rugby to the country, and an excerpt from a 1933 phone book describing the Saigon Sports Stadium notes a rugby pitch with stands for 3,000 spectators.</p>
<p class="p1">Today there are no professional Vietnamese-born players abroad – although France fly-half Francois Trinh-Duc is of Vietnamese origin – and just a small group of expatriates playing recreationally in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.</p>
<p class="p1">But the game isn&#8217;t totally unfamiliar in Vietnam, as it echoes aspects of the traditional <em>vat cau</em> New Year festival that sees shirtless men wrestle for possession of a large wooden ball on a field.</p>
<p class="p1">Now Vietnam&#8217;s budding young rugby stars hope the sport will start to gain popularity.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;I really wish that Vietnam would participate in Rugby World Cup one day, and I hope to be a member of that team,&#8221; said coach Bui Van Nhan, 17.</p>
<p class="p1"><em>– AFP</em></p>
Fiji, Samoa and Tonga are losing their talented players to New Zealand, Australian and England
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/pacific-island-nations-suffer-brawn-drain/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/pacific-island-nations-suffer-brawn-drain/<p class="p1">The great wealth-divide is having a major impact on world rugby.</p>
<p class="p1">As it aims to open up new frontiers this year at the World Cup in Japan, the talent-rich Pacific island nations feel they are still being neglected by the game&#8217;s powerbrokers.</p>
<p class="p1">Fiji, Samoa and Tonga all boast a rich rugby heritage and a wealth of playing talent but have battled to overcome financial hardships and geographic isolation.</p>
<p class="p1">Lobby group Pacific Rugby Players Welfare estimates about 20% of all professional players come from islander backgrounds, highlighting the region&#8217;s contribution to the international game.</p>
<p class="p1">While the figure is open to interpretation, there is no doubt Pacific islanders have long bolstered the Test squads of New Zealand and Australia, and more recently England and France.</p>
<p class="p1">Fiji coach John McKee said there was an &#8220;X-factor&#8221; about Pacific rugby which could electrify the game.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;They&#8217;re very gifted athletes and have that warrior spirit, which goes back in their history. It&#8217;s in their DNA and carries on into their rugby,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p class="p1">But for all their on-field attributes, the Pacific nations face serious off-field issues that prevent them from consistently challenging the game&#8217;s global superpowers.</p>
<p class="p1">Some are beyond their control, including geographic isolation, lack of financial resources and the actions of player agents luring top talent overseas.</p>
<p class="p1">Other problems such as poor governance and political interference in the game can be controlled and there are signs things are slowly improving.</p>
<h4>Promising players</h4>
<p class="p1">The islands, with a collective population of less than 1.5 million, lack financial clout and most promising players soon sign for foreign clubs, making it hard to forge a cohesive national team.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;Our top players are spread all around the world, particularly in Europe,&#8221; McKee said. &#8220;So keeping an eye on their form, current fitness and injury status is a major task for us.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;It puts us at a disadvantage against our competitors, particularly tier one nations, who get a lot more time together,” he added.</p>
<p class="p1">For years, some unscrupulous player agents exacerbated the problem, signing up budding teenage stars to one-sided European club contracts in a situation former Fiji sevens coach Ben Ryan likened to &#8220;the Wild West.&#8221;</p>
<p class="p1">McKee said tighter eligibility rules in Europe meant the problem had eased but young players still needed support when leaving their family networks to travel to a foreign culture where they often did not speak the local language.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;For some people, taking them over there was a numbers game – if they can get 10 players in France and one becomes a superstar that&#8217;s great for the agent,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But who looks after the other nine who don&#8217;t get contracts? They slip down the levels and end up playing amateur rugby. It&#8217;s difficult to make a living.&#8221;</p>
<p class="p1">Further complicating matters, the governing rugby unions in Fiji, Tonga and Samoa have all faced questions in recent years about how they run the game.</p>
<p class="p1">Concerns have ranged from financial irregularities to incompetence and political interference.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;A lot of [problems] have come from home, from the Fijian Rugby Union,&#8221; Englishman Ryan, who coached Fiji&#8217;s sevens team to Olympic gold at the Rio 2016 Games, said.</p>
<h4>Historic win</h4>
<p class="p1">&#8220;There are serious things they need to get better at around governance and things like that,” he added,</p>
<p class="p1">Again, there have been improvements. Fiji and Samoa were welcomed onto an expanded World Rugby Council late last year after meeting strict governance criteria laid down by the game&#8217;s ruling body.</p>
<p class="p1">Fiji showed their potential with a historic Test win over France last November and McKee was confident they could spring more surprises in Japan.</p>
<p class="p1">But World Rugby&#8217;s recently discarded plan for a cross-hemisphere Nations Championship highlights how the game&#8217;s top brass often treat the Pacific islands as an afterthought.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;What we need is a professional team in a professional competition which allows us to keep our players,&#8221; he said, citing the way the Buenos Aires-based Jaguares Super Rugby team had lifted the Argentine national side.</p>
<p class="p1">A proposal for a Pacific islands Super Rugby team was scrapped late last year after organizers decided it was not commercially viable.</p>
<p class="p1">But McKee said if World Rugby was intent on global expansion and pursuing lucrative broadcast rights, then it needed to use some of the money to help the Pacific islands.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;There&#8217;s certainly no easy solutions but a solution needs to be found,&#8221; he said</p>
<p class="p1"><em>– AFP</em></p>
Ireland’s coach is happy his team is ranked No 1, but says New Zealand are the firm favorites in Japan
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/irish-relying-on-luck-and-the-all-blacks-losing/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/irish-relying-on-luck-and-the-all-blacks-losing/<p>Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt said New Zealand are the firm favourites for the Rugby World Cup despite the Irish heading for Japan ranked top of the world for the first time in their history.</p>
<p>The 53-year-old New Zealander conceded it was a &#8220;nice label&#8221; to have and yet another first in many that the Irish have accrued since he took over in 2013.</p>
<p>Schmidt was speaking after Ireland had beaten Wales 19-10 to give him and inspirational captain Rory Best the perfect farewell in what was a final Test at Lansdowne Road for both of them.</p>
<p>Since Best took over the captaincy after the 2015 World Cup, the Irish have recorded two historic wins over the All Blacks and won the 2018 Six Nations Grand Slam, only the third in their history.</p>
<p>The task for Schmidt and Best – who not so long ago were under the hammer after a humiliating 57-15 thrashing by England at Twickenham – is to at least take Ireland into previously uncharted territory at a World Cup as they have yet to make the last four.</p>
<p>&#8220;I did not realize we were (No 1) till an interview after the game,&#8221; said Schmidt. &#8220;It is a label, a nice one, nice that it is the first time that we have been in that position.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have been lucky enough to tick enough firsts off through the years, but that label will not be relevant in Japan. We all know who are favorites for the World Cup and it is not us.&#8221;</p>
<p>Schmidt, who will step away from the game when the World Cup comes to an end, said All Blacks coach Steve Hansen will not be concerned at losing the world No 1 ranking.</p>
<p>&#8220;Knowing Steve and Ian Foster (his assistant) and some of the players it is far from their minds,&#8221; said Schmidt. &#8220;For them it is all about getting out and making the ball work and working hard for each other and they make a very good job of it.</p>
<p>&#8220;We acknowledge the quality they bring to the game of rugby.&#8221;</p>
<figure id="attachment_378630" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-378630" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Ireland-coach-e1568109156113.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1096" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Ireland coach Joe Schmidt after the warm-up game against Wales at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo: AFP/Paul Faith</figcaption></figure>
<p>For 37-year-old Best – who had fought back the tears when the crowd roared for him at the final whistle – it was a relief that after losing the first two lineouts of the match, which had been a feature of the England game, the Irish scrum had got their act together in that department.</p>
<p>&#8220;James Ryan called the line-outs this week and it was Hendy (Iain Henderson) last week,&#8221; said Best. &#8220;It takes pressure off and breeds confidence. &#8220;Line outs you are so interdependent on each other and when it goes wrong you go jittery and you need someone to stand up and make the calls.</p>
<p>&#8220;The most disappointing thing about the England game was how we reacted to losing the line-outs, our heads went down and we did not play on in the action that followed those. There was a lot better reaction today.&#8221;</p>
<p>Schmidt, who enjoyed huge success prior to the Ireland job with Irish province Leinster, said he was already focussed on their first pool game with Scotland on September 22.</p>
<p>Best, who walked around the pitch with his three children taking the plaudits from the crowd after Ireland&#8217;s last win, said it had been great to bow out with a performance to be proud of. &#8220;Obviously this place is incredibly special and I have some wonderful memories,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;To get that reception from the supporters is wonderful and nice for my mum and dad and wife and three children. It means that over a long period of time you have done more things right than wrong.</p>
<p>&#8220;It was nice to get a standing ovation and applause but the ultimate goal is the World Cup.&#8221;</p>
<p>– <em>AFP</em></p>
Amateurish disclosure prompted intelligence officials to renew discussions about risk of exposure, according to high-level sources
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/bumbling-trump-forced-cia-to-extract-top-russian-spy/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/bumbling-trump-forced-cia-to-extract-top-russian-spy/<p>In a previously undisclosed secret mission in 2017, the United States successfully extracted from Russia one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government, multiple Trump administration officials with direct knowledge told CNN.</p>
<p>A person directly involved in the discussions said that the removal of the Russian was driven, in part, by concerns that President Donald Trump and his administration repeatedly mishandled classified intelligence and could contribute to exposing the covert source as a spy, the report said.</p>
<p>The decision to carry out the extraction occurred soon after a May 2017 meeting in the Oval Office in which Trump discussed highly classified intelligence with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and then-Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. The intelligence, concerning ISIS in Syria, had been provided by Israel.</p>
<p>The disclosure to the Russians by the President, though not about the Russian spy specifically, prompted intelligence officials to renew earlier discussions about the potential risk of exposure, according to the source directly involved in the matter.</p>
<p>At the time, then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo told other senior Trump administration officials that too much information was coming out regarding the covert source, known as an asset. An extraction, or &#8220;exfiltration&#8221; as such an operation is referred to by intelligence officials, is an extraordinary remedy when US intelligence believes an asset is in immediate danger.</p>
<p>The source was considered the highest level source for the US inside the Kremlin, high up in the national security infrastructure, according to the source familiar with the matter and a former senior intelligence official, the report said.</p>
<p>According to CNN&#8217;s sources, the spy had access to Putin and could even provide images of documents on the Russian leader&#8217;s desk.</p>
<p>The covert source provided information for more than a decade, according to the sources, and an initial effort to extract the spy, after exposure concerns, was rebuffed by the informant.</p>
<p>CNN is reporting the additional information about the covert source who was extracted from Russia in 2017. The information, which adds further understanding to the value of the informant, was initially withheld by CNN but was subsequently reported by the New York Times.</p>
<p>Asked for comment, Brittany Bramell, the CIA director of public affairs, told CNN: &#8220;CNN&#8217;s narrative that the Central Intelligence Agency makes life-or-death decisions based on anything other than objective analysis and sound collection is simply false. Misguided speculation that the President&#8217;s handling of our nation&#8217;s most sensitive intelligence—which he has access to each and every day—drove an alleged exfiltration operation is inaccurate.&#8221;</p>
<p>A spokesperson for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined to comment. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said, &#8220;CNN&#8217;s reporting is not only incorrect, it has the potential to put lives in danger.&#8221;</p>
<p>The removal happened at a time of wide concern in the intelligence community about mishandling of intelligence by Trump and his administration. Those concerns were described to CNN by five sources who served in the Trump administration, intelligence agencies and Congress.</p>
<p>Those concerns continued to grow in the period after Trump&#8217;s Oval Office meeting with Kislyak and Lavrov. Weeks after the decision to extract the spy, in July 2017, Trump met privately with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Hamburg and took the unusual step of confiscating the interpreter&#8217;s notes. Afterward, intelligence officials again expressed concern that the President may have improperly discussed classified intelligence with Russia, according to an intelligence source with knowledge of the intelligence community&#8217;s response to the Trump-Putin meeting.</p>
<p>Knowledge of the Russian covert source&#8217;s existence was highly restricted within the US government and intelligence agencies. According to one source, there was &#8220;no equal alternative&#8221; inside the Russian government, providing both insight and information on Putin.</p>
<p>The secret removal of the high-level Russian asset has left the US without one of its key sources on the inner workings of the Kremlin and the plans and thinking of the Russian president at a time when tensions between the two nations have been growing.</p>
<p>At the end of the Obama administration, US intelligence officials had already expressed concerns about the safety of this spy and other Russian assets, given the length of their cooperation with the US, according to the former senior intelligence official.</p>
Government death sentence awaits 4-metre-long croc, as officials deem ‘Howard’ a threat to public safety
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/aussie-boy-fights-to-save-his-crocodile-friend/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/aussie-boy-fights-to-save-his-crocodile-friend/<p>A crocodile living in a creek in northwestern Australia is at the centre of a battle between authorities who want to remove it, and locals who have grown fond of the massive reptile, Channel News Asia (CNA) reported.</p>
<p>Officials in the state of Queensland have set a trap to catch the saltwater croc, which residents have nicknamed Howard, saying he is a danger to humans.</p>
<p>But one schoolboy disagrees — he has written a letter to state environment minister Leeanne Enoch begging her to let the creature stay.</p>
<p>&#8220;I lived at Bamboo Creek Road for five years and I loved watching Howard sunbake and seeing him from the bridge every afternoon,&#8221; 10-year-old Elroy Woods, from Miallo, wrote in the letter.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m very saddened that Howard is being moved away from his home and I don&#8217;t understand why a trap is there for Howard,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Woods has earned the name &#8220;Little Steve Irwin&#8221; after campaigning to save the four-metre-long (13-ft.-long) reptile.</p>
<p>David White, who owns a local crocodile-cruise business, said there had been 300 emails sent in support of keeping the animal where it is, and just one complaint.</p>
<p>Even Queensland&#8217;s Australia Zoo, run by the widow of late celebrity &#8220;crocodile hunter&#8221; Steve Irwin, has pitched in.</p>
<p>The zoo said in a tweet it was &#8220;so proud&#8221; of Elroy&#8217;s efforts to protect Howard, adding that predators at the top of the food chain were &#8220;the most important in any ecosystem.&#8221;</p>
<p>However, the government has indicated the trap will remain in place, saying the crocodile will not be destroyed when caught.</p>
<p>A balance &#8220;between the need to protect public safety, and the need to conserve estuarine crocodile populations in the wild&#8221; must be found, said your basic heartless environment department official.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378810" style="width: 770px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-378810 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-10-at-3.32.58-PM.png" alt="" width="770" height="439" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-10-at-3.32.58-PM.png 770w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-10-at-3.32.58-PM-768x438.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Australian officials have deemed Howard the crocodile a threat to public safety. Howard has refused comment. Wire photo.</figcaption></figure>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
Whether it is cars, machinery or even cosmetics, products bearing the black-red-gold flag still stand for quality, durability and reliability
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/german-businesses-adapt-to-chinas-changing-market/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/german-businesses-adapt-to-chinas-changing-market/<p>German Chancellor Angela Merkel was received in Beijing last week with a large business delegation for her 12th visit to China — a record for any Western leader — indicating how important the relationship between the world&#8217;s second and fourth biggest economies remains, CGTN.com reported</p>
<p>Some 5,000 German companies currently operate in China, according to the German Chamber of Commerce (AHK).</p>
<p>These include big names like automakers Volkswagen, Daimler and Mercedes, industrial giant Siemens, chemical producer BASF and Deutsche Bank.</p>
<p>But small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have also flocked to China over the years, lured by low labor costs and a Chinese market with huge potential, the report said.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you could just get a 10-percent market share, you would be more than busy for the coming five years. And for a small- to medium-sized company, that may already be all the incentive they need, especially if worldwide, the economy is slowing down,&#8221; Kerstin Kaehler, manager of the German Enterprise Centre Qingdao (GECQ), told CGTN.</p>
<div class="text en">
<p>The GECQ was established three years ago to host German as well as non-German SMEs and offers them support in setting up business and navigating the system in China.</p>
<p>In a sign of just how diverse Germany&#8217;s presence here has become, the GECQ&#8217;s tenants include a water treatment company, agricultural machinery firms, an architectural bureau building a passive house nearby and another company looking at ways to turn waste into biogas.</p>
<p>No longer is it only carmakers, engineering and manufacturing firms that set up shop here: as environmental concerns become ever more a priority worldwide, China too has become a prime location to develop sustainable projects.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Germany has long enjoyed a stellar reputation in China.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is a sometimes surprisingly strong positive bias towards German quality&#8230; that is still quite entrenched in the Chinese consumer mindset,&#8221; noted Kaehler.</p>
<p>Whether it is cars, machinery or even cosmetics, products bearing the black-red-gold flag still stand for quality, durability and reliability, the report said.</p>
<p>Even the 2015 Volkswagen emissions scandal did not dampen Chinese enthusiasm for the brand, and the company remains the clear market leader in terms of sales.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378717" style="width: 648px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-378717 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-10-at-8.08.31-AM.png" alt="" width="648" height="395" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">German Chancellor Angela Merkel was received in Beijing last week with a large business delegation for her 12th visit to China — a record for any Western leader. Wire photo.</figcaption></figure>
<p>One challenge on the horizon for German and other foreign businesses will be China&#8217;s new company social credit system, which will come into force next year and will monitor businesses&#8217; behavior and adjust their score according to that.</p>
<p>&#8220;That is going to, in the long run, I think, be an advantage in making the playing field more level for everyone by ensuring compliance. But in the short term, it is going to need a lot of extra work, a lot of extra resources and quite a bit of dedication to fully understand what is going to happen,&#8221; according to Kaehler.</p>
<p>Last month, the AHK warned that with less than a year to go before it is implemented, &#8220;almost seven out of 10 German companies in China are not familiar with the system, its mode of operation and its objectives in the business context.&#8221;</p>
<p>Still, despite such challenges and talk of slowing economic growth, German companies are here to stay.</p>
<p>&#8220;The step to come here is so big that &#8230; once they have committed they usually have really calculated everything three to five times, have thought it through and finally made their commitment and then they tend to stick to it,&#8221; and this is especially the case with SMEs, said Kaehler.</p>
<p>In other news, according to China Daily, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina signed the Beijing Declaration, pledging to jointly promote basic research and foster young scientists.</p>
<p>The declaration, released at the opening of a joint conference, said basic science is at the heart of innovation and future science will be integrative, inclusive and responsible.</p>
<p>The two academies agreed in the declaration that while science endeavors to explore the boundaries of knowledge, it must take on its share of social responsibility, be committed to contributing to sustainable development and strictly adhere to moral and ethical norms.</p>
<p>They pledge that they will organize a series of exchanges on scientific issues of common concern and further strengthen mutual trust, consensus and cooperation to establish a robust scientific environment in the international community.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are very proud that such powerful academies, the academy in China and our German academy, can form such an alliance,&#8221; said Joerg Hacker, president of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.</p>
</div>
Dong Mingzhu, legendary chairwoman of Gree Appliances, has allegedly has not taken a paid holiday in 27 years
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/dong-mingzhu-grabs-reins-of-gree-yinlong-energy/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/dong-mingzhu-grabs-reins-of-gree-yinlong-energy/<p>Dong Mingzhu, the legendary chairwoman of Gree Electric Appliances, has become the head a new joint venture formed by Gree, Yinlong Energy and four other companies, The Paper reported.</p>
<p>Guochuang Energy Internet Innovation Center Guangdong was set up in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, on Aug. 20 with a registered capital of 100 million yuan (US$14.1 million), according to corporate information platform Tianyancha.</p>
<p>The new firm will mainly research, develop and sell energy routers, photovoltaic gear and new energy equipment in the local area.</p>
<p>Zhuhai-based Gree is the JV&#8217;s biggest shareholder with a 75% stake. CRRC Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive owns 8%; Yinlong Energy, Dongguan Zhongrui Intelligent Equipment and Zhejiang Sanhua Intelligent Controls have 5% each; Nanjing Guochen DC Power Distribution Technology owns the remaining 2%.</p>
<p>Gree and Yinlong, which is controlled by Dong, frequently team up in the new energy field. Gree moved to acquire electric bus maker Yinlong for 13 billion yuan (US$1.83 billion) in 2016 but it faced unexpected opposition from small- and medium-sized investors.</p>
<p>Dong then took a stake in Yinlong in her own name, becoming its second-largest shareholder. She later took control after its largest shareholder was taken to court for embezzling the firm.</p>
<p>A wholly-owned Gree unit, Yinlong and Huatai Huineng Beijing Energy Technology jointly invested 30 million yuan to set up Zhuhai Hengqin Gree Huatai Energy Development on Aug. 28.</p>
<p>Holding 51%, 25%and 24% of it respectively, the JV will develop technologies for new energy, energy conservation, and energy storage systems. Wang Jingdong, Gree&#8217;s board secretary, is its chairman.</p>
<p>According to Business Insider, Dong is considered by many pundits as China&#8217;s most successful businesswoman, as the leader of the US$22 billion air-conditioning giant Gree.</p>
<p class="">She also allegedly has not taken a single day of paid holiday leave in a 27-year tenure at the company, according to Quartz.</p>
<p class="">In China, she is famously known as &#8220;Sister Dong&#8221; and her career path has certainly been an interesting one.</p>
<p class="">She arrived at Gree as a salesperson in 1990, when annual sales were suffering, and quickly rose up the ranks as she marked herself out as a fiercely hard worker.</p>
<p class="">Fast-forward 26 years, and Gree is the largest air-conditioning manufacturer in the world, its stock value having grown by 2,300% under her leadership.</p>
<p class="">Sales of Gree units account for two in every five sold in the country.</p>
<p class="">Described by the New York Times as &#8220;one of the toughest businesswomen in China,&#8221; her formidable example has won her the loyal devotion of the firm&#8217;s 70,000-strong army of employees.</p>
<p>One employee told the Telegraph: &#8220;She&#8217;s been through everything herself. We never dare to say that something is impossible in front of her. We must all have her will to succeed.&#8221;</p>
<p class="">&#8220;Where Sister Dong walks, no grass grows&#8221; and &#8220;when she chews you up, she doesn&#8217;t even spit out the bones&#8221; are two judgments made by competitors reported by the New York Times.</p>
<p>According to the Business Insider, she refuses to apologise for her focus — her 2006 autobiography was titled &#8220;Regretless Pursuit&#8221; — but it has come at a personal cost. She began work at the company as a widow after her husband died in 1984 and she left her infant son to be raised by his grandmother.</p>
<p class="">
Former Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg moves to defuse F1 spat as Singapore duel with Leclerc looms
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/ex-racers-are-irrelevant-lewis-hamilton/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/ex-racers-are-irrelevant-lewis-hamilton/<p>Has Lewis Hamilton lost control of hie ego? Has he become bigger than the sport? Some racing aficionados are left wondering, after this weekend&#8217;s Italian Grand Prix.</p>
<p>Apparently, the Formula One driver is just too important to be criticized — with one broad sweep, the five-time champion declared all ex-racers irrelevant. A bizarre disrespect to the history of the sport, and those who made it great.</p>
<p>According to Channel News Asia (CNA), retired world champion Nico Rosberg has respectfully moved to defuse an F1 spat after his former Mercedes teammate Hamilton and Red Bull&#8217;s Max Verstappen slagged him after the Monza F1 race this past weekend.</p>
<p>Rosberg, who hung up his helmet days after winning the 2016 title, told followers of his YouTube blog that he would &#8220;try and change my tone a little bit&#8221; when he discussed his former rivals.</p>
<p>Hamilton, heading for his sixth title this season, made his comments after Verstappen hit back at criticism from Rosberg, who is now a Sky Sports television pundit.</p>
<p>The Dutch 21-year-old alleged Rosberg was just being controversial to attract viewers, and said the son of 1982 champion Keke should have stayed in Formula One if he needed the money.</p>
<p>He also compared him to 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, known for forthright and often controversial opinions about the sport — a compliment of sorts.</p>
<p>It should be noted the vocal Dutchman is nowhere near the talent of Jacques&#8217; father, famed Ferrari driver Gilles Villeneuve, nor Jacques himself, who won titles on both continents and retired at the top of his career.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378396" style="width: 654px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-378396 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-09-at-5.36.21-PM.png" alt="" width="654" height="368" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Former Formula One Champion Nico Rosberg is now a pundit for Sky Sports. File photo.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Hamilton then published on Instagram a snapshot of a website story quoting Verstappen&#8217;s response, with a clapping emoji and the comment &#8220;this had me in stitches!&#8221;</p>
<p>Asked after Italian Grand Prix qualifying about his post, and what he thought of Rosberg&#8217;s comments, Hamilton made a further dig at his former teammate while siding with Verstappen, CNS reported.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think Max is generally a really funny guy so I was cracking up when I saw it,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Unfortunately, drivers become irrelevant when they retire and ultimately have to hang on to utilize other people’s light to keep them in the light and so &#8230; but that’s the way of sport, I guess,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Rosberg — generally respected as a well-informed, cool head at Sky Sports — said he could understand where Hamilton and Verstappen were coming from, took the high road in his response.</p>
<p>&#8220;When I was still active one of the things I hated most was ex-drivers or journalists telling me about comments that ex-drivers made about me, which came across in a critical way,&#8221; he said. &#8220;In my case it was often David Coulthard. It would drive me nuts, seriously it was horrible.</p>
<p>&#8220;So now we have the situation that journalists have been relaying some of my stuff, or some comments I said that were negative &#8230; so I need to make a little bit of a change there because I don&#8217;t want (to upset) those guys, my ex-colleagues, whom I respect a lot.&#8221;</p>
<p>Meanwhile, it was clear Hamilton was peeved when Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc shut the door and squeezed him off the track at the Italian Grand Prix, escaping any penalty.</p>
<p>Hamilton also insisted that had he not been focused on winning the world championship he would not have given ground and the pair would have collided — a dangerous strategy in open wheel race cars — while Michael Masi, the race director, defended the FIA’s decision only to issue Leclerc with a warning.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378403" style="width: 864px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-378403 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-09-at-6.08.02-PM.png" alt="" width="864" height="477" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-09-at-6.08.02-PM.png 864w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-09-at-6.08.02-PM-768x424.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc shows Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton the door, at the 2019 Italian Grand Prix in Monza. Youtube.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Many race fans worldwide applauded the decision, however, as it translated into one of the most exciting races of a rather dull season.</p>
<p>“If that’s how we are allowed to race then I will race like that,” Hamilton spat. “As long as we know that you are allowed to not leave a car width for example. You are allowed to run wide even if someone is there and you only get a warning flag. As long as it is clear that that’s the way moving forward it’s fine, so I know how to go into battle.”</p>
<p>Leclerc won at Monza after a tense battle with Hamilton that lasted for much of the race. With Hamilton chasing the Ferrari driver he moved to pass going into the Roggia chicane.</p>
<p>Leclerc squeezed him wide and Hamilton was forced to go off track, immediately insisting that Leclerc had not given him a car’s width of space. Masi opted to give Leclerc a warning rather than a penalty and Hamilton was unequivocal that the decision would influence his driving in future — a payback threat we may see in Singapore.</p>
<p>Hamilton also suggested that &#8220;new drivers&#8221; are getting away with more — a clear shot at Leclerc.</p>
<p>“It doesn’t really matter what I think,” said Hamilton. “I avoided the collision, and just kept focusing on trying to get close again.</p>
<p>“It seems like the new generation get away with a lot more in that space, of how they manoeuvre their car compared to I’d say the more experienced drivers. But it’s good knowledge, now I know, and I look forward to the next one.”</p>
Unenviable task: renewing financial health after reporting worst Q1 results since global financial crisis
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/nissan-seeks-clean-slate-with-ceo-exit-but-challenges-remain/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/nissan-seeks-clean-slate-with-ceo-exit-but-challenges-remain/<p>Crisis-hit Japanese automaker Nissan hopes the resignation of its embattled chief executive will help turn the page on the tumult unleashed by the arrest of former chief Carlos Ghosn.</p>
<p>But the firm still faces plenty of challenges, from naming a successor to Hiroto Saikawa and repairing its alliance with partner Renault to turning around the firm&#8217;s finances after a disastrous year.</p>
<h4>The succession headache</h4>
<p>Nissan CEO Saikawa announced Monday he would be stepping down, after an internal audit launched in the wake of the Ghosn scandal found he benefitted inappropriately from a bonus scheme.</p>
<p>The firm&#8217;s current chief operating officer Yasuhiro Yamauchi will serve as interim CEO while Nissan searches for a permanent replacement. They hope to name someone by the end of October.</p>
<p>Masakazu Toyoda, head of the firm&#8217;s nomination committee, said they were looking for someone who could inspire employees at Nissan, which has been buffeted by scandal since Ghosn&#8217;s shock arrest in November.</p>
<p>The firm also wants a candidate with auto industry experience and a &#8220;deep understanding&#8221; of alliances, a necessary trait for a CEO who will have to navigate Nissan&#8217;s tricky relationship with French partner Renault.</p>
<p>Nissan says it has narrowed the field to 10 candidates, among them non-Japanese citizens and – unusually for Japan&#8217;s male boardrooms – women, but it is believed to favor hiring a Japanese citizen.</p>
<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s not an obvious replacement,&#8221; a source with knowledge of the matter told AFP.</p>
<p>Yamauchi, 63, is not considered the &#8220;new blood&#8221; the firm needs and is not believed to be keen on keeping the post.</p>
<h4>Housecleaning</h4>
<p>Saikawa described his resignation as the result in part of the &#8220;milestone&#8221; of completing the firm&#8217;s internal audit.</p>
<p>The audit&#8217;s conclusions focus largely on Ghosn and his former right-hand man Greg Kelly, accusing them of costing the firm at least 35 billion yen ($326 million) – a figure that includes deferred payments that were never actually made.</p>
<p>Ghosn denies any wrongdoing and a statement from his lawyers Monday accused Nissan of an &#8220;inconsistent, contradictory and incoherent&#8221; position.</p>
<p>In addition to Ghosn, Kelly and Saikawa, six other senior Nissan officials – some still working at the firm – were found to have improperly received bonuses. Their names have not been made public.</p>
<p>Nissan says the scheme that Saikawa and the other unnamed officials participated in was not illegal, and that the issue is different from what it calls intentional misconduct by Ghosn and Kelly.</p>
<p>And it says Saikawa and the other executives will return the money involved.</p>
<p>It is unclear whether the audit would continue, with sources saying some board members want further investigation.</p>
<p>A source told AFP that the American lawyer who led the probe, Christina Murray, opted to resign in frustration that the audit&#8217;s conclusions focused only on directors at the firm.</p>
<h4>Alliances to rebuild</h4>
<p>The next CEO of Nissan faces the unenviable task of returning the firm to financial health after it reported its worst first-quarter results since the global financial crisis.</p>
<p>The automaker has cited a global slowdown in the auto sector, but it is also suffering from a lack of innovation on its production line and from reputational damage from the Ghosn scandal.</p>
<p>Whoever succeeds Saikawa will inherit the harsh cost-cutting measures he proposed as a way out of the wilderness, including reducing dealer incentives and promotions but also cutting global production by 10 percent, a measure that means the loss of 12,500 jobs.</p>
<p>Then there is the unresolved business of Nissan&#8217;s fractious alliance with Mitsubishi Motors and Renault.</p>
<p>Ghosn, who created the alliance, wanted greater integration with France&#8217;s Renault, and says his push for that prompted angry Nissan executives to &#8220;plot&#8221; against him.</p>
<p>The two firms have made a show of holding the marriage together in the wake of Ghosn&#8217;s arrest, but tensions have bubbled to the surface over the alliance&#8217;s future.</p>
<p>Renault holds a 43-percent stake in the Japanese automaker, which in turn controls 15 percent of the French firm but has no voting rights.</p>
<p>Sources say various changes to that structure have been proposed, but &#8220;nothing is official&#8221; yet.</p>
<p><em>– AFP</em></p>
Photos and videos show nine journalists were pepper-sprayed by officers from the elite ‘raptor’ squad
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hk-police-criticized-for-targeting-journalists/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hk-police-criticized-for-targeting-journalists/<p>Journalists, cameramen and photojournalists wore helmets, facemasks and reflective vests at a police press conference on Monday in protest at the alleged brutality of the police force on media as they were reporting from protest sites.</p>
<p>A spokesperson from the Hong Kong Journalists Association and the Press Photographers Association read out a statement before the daily briefing started, alleging that some police officers had treated journalists brutally and obstructed their work by pepper spraying them on Saturday at a protest site in Kowloon.</p>
<p>The associations condemned what they called the brutality of police officers and violence and intimidation directed at journalists. They called on the police force to face the problems created by their frontline officers, who they said were emotionally out of control and were excessive in their use of force.</p>
<p>During the clashes between protesters and police last weekend, a number of cases supported by images or video footage showed that journalists were being targeted by some police officers, they said.</p>
<p>On Saturday night, when police had been arresting protesters outside the Pioneer Centre in Mong Kok, reporters were told by police to stop filming and leave the site. However, officers from the elite “raptor” squad used pepper-spray when a group of journalists stayed on the sidewalk.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O9D5PpGVPxI?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Nine journalists – two photojournalists from news website HK01.com, one photojournalist from AFP, two photojournalists and one reporter from Ming Pao Daily, two reporters from Cable TV and one cameraman from RTHK – were affected and two had pepper-spray directed at their faces.</p>
<p>The police there failed to display their warrant cards or numbers, making it difficult for the reporters to file complaints.</p>
<p>On the same night, <a href="https://thestandnews.com/politics/%E7%AB%8B%E5%A0%B4%E8%A8%98%E8%80%85%E9%81%87%E8%A5%B2-%E6%B2%B9%E9%BA%BB%E5%9C%B0%E6%9E%9C%E6%AC%84%E5%A4%96%E8%A2%AB%E6%89%93-%E8%B7%9D%E6%95%B8%E7%B1%B3%E8%AD%A6%E6%96%B9%E7%84%A1%E7%90%86%E6%9C%83/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a reporter surnamed Chan from Stand News was attacked</a> by a man in Yau Ma Tei while he was doing a live report on social media.</p>
<p>Chan said a group of police officers stood 10 meters away when the attack took place, but did not take any action, chase down the attacker or come to help him. The reporter suffered mouth and hand injuries and went to a hospital for treatment by himself later that night.</p>
<p>On Sunday, video footage showed police officers at the Causeway Bay MTR station throw a tear gas grenade, without warning, towards the sidewalk and which hit a reporter who was there.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VY7u1eYiA6Q?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/mingpaompsa/posts/2668761599823804?__xts__[0]=68.ARB-7dk6Xd23Bg1yiMy70PIg0TJgsak-AcaR2yC7ZK_my0R9gPCNEgIBFnr854dRpGrLU__wWbfYZD6Gom8rXZQr8wX9zdgv6korkg623BVfex3Ps7zLaTBMXG3RNZcb5KJmjjp7TexJy7G8aAgeKQa0oj7qMK94D7alP3hPVUW6q4eyXirpzzB4Iy8ivxsIEi4xphaNOQ2qAIkTv4tFp1qNEiNCeVdUVRvp2w_9fi7Gxp6gcOJKmBB6VaA2qibK9TDLD5qv6oKoLF9e4MuX03wYR7p08lC4R-avBRrsNbrKF4ggy6DVWCdZK5uQjrquYvBScWsW2L8gHbIL3h6iGQ&amp;__tn__=-R" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Ming Pao Staff Association also issued a statement </a>condemning another incident on Sunday when their reporter was pushed to the ground by riot police while he was taking photos of protesters outside Mong Kok Police Station.</p>
<p>The officer covered his face and claimed the reporter fell down. The force ignored a request from the reporter for the police officer&#8217;s number so he could file a complaint.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Foreign Correspondents Club strongly condemned the police violence, saying the actions were unacceptable and constituted a violation of the rights under Hong Kong law for journalists to cover protests free of intimidation or violence by authorities.</p>
<p>Superintendent John Tse Chun-chung from the police public relations branch said on Monday that officers at the scene in Mong Kok did ask reporters politely to move away.</p>
<p>Using pepper-spray was only to establish a safe distance between police and other people at the scene, Tse said. Tse also said officers were not sure whether the people wearing reflective vests were reporters or not.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, police on Tuesday confirmed that all officers would be allowed to carry extendable batons when they are off-duty, in view of the escalating violence from recent protests.</p>
<p>Tse said the arrangement enabled officers to enforce the law and protect public safety in case of emergencies.</p>
<p>Wong Wai-shun, senior superintendent of the operation wing, said the officers would follow the Police General Orders strictly as the use of batons was regarded as a “use of force” and they would show their warrant cards whenever a situation allowed.</p>
<p>Wong added that officers from the crime investigation team were allowed to carry guns 24-hours a day. Local media reported that about 10,000 batons had been purchased by police.</p>
<figure id="attachment_353741" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-353741" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Hong-Kong-Police-Protest-Extradition-Law-June-12-2019-e1560488793273.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Hong-Kong-Police-Protest-Extradition-Law-June-12-2019-e1560488793273.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Hong-Kong-Police-Protest-Extradition-Law-June-12-2019-e1560488793273-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Hong-Kong-Police-Protest-Extradition-Law-June-12-2019-e1560488793273-1568x1047.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Hong Kong police. Photo: AFP/Dale De La Rey</figcaption></figure>
The Testaments delves into the terrifying, misogynistic dystopia set in the US in the future
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/atwood-unveils-sequel-to-the-handmaids-tale/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/atwood-unveils-sequel-to-the-handmaids-tale/<p class="p1">Margaret Atwood has released the much-anticipated sequel to her award-winning 1985 novel <em>The Handmaid&#8217;s Tale</em> with <em>The Testaments</em> set to become a similar smash hit.</p>
<p class="p1">A terrifying, misogynistic dystopia set in the US northeast in the near future, <em>The Handmaid&#8217;s Tale</em> has been turned into a major television series and has become a feminist rallying point for the #MeToo generation.</p>
<p class="p1">Fans flocked to Waterstones&#8217; flagship bookstore in London’s Piccadilly on Tuesday, where the 79-year-old author read from her new novel to around 400 avid followers who could get their hands on the book at midnight.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;It&#8217;s very accurate with what&#8217;s going [on] at the moment, where the world is heading and that&#8217;s kind of scary,&#8221; said Melisa Kumas, 27, from the Netherlands but living in London, who wore a red handmaid&#8217;s outfit.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;It may be a bit of a warning to the people.&#8221;</p>
<p class="p1">The sequel has already been nominated for the 2019 Booker Prize, one of the English-speaking world&#8217;s most prestigious literary awards.</p>
<p class="p1">Its predecessor, which was nominated for the 1986 Booker Prize, was turned into a film in 1990, an opera in 2000, and an award-winning television drama series, which first aired in 2017.</p>
<p class="p1">The show has boosted sales of the novel, which has shifted eight million copies worldwide in English alone.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378668" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img class="size-full wp-image-378668" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Margaret-Atwood.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="534" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Margaret-Atwood.jpg 800w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Margaret-Atwood-768x513.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Margaret Atwood discusses her new book &#8216;The Testaments,&#8217; a sequel to the award-winning novel &#8216;The Handmaid&#8217;s Tale&#8217; at a London media conference. Photo: AFP / Tolga Akmen</figcaption></figure>
<p class="p1">In the original novel, the United States has become the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian religious state where women are sexually subjugated.</p>
<p class="p1">More than 15 years on from the events of <em>The Handmaid&#8217;s Tale</em>, the oppressive theocratic regime maintains its grip on power, but there are signs that it is beginning to rot from within.</p>
<p class="p1">The lives of three radically different women converge in the novel.</p>
<p class="p1">Two, Agnes and Daisy, grew up in the first generation since the new order took over, while a third, Aunt Lydia, wields power through the ruthless accumulation and deployment of secrets.</p>
<h4>Slave name</h4>
<p class="p1">Aunt Lydia was a character in <em>The Handmaid&#8217;s Tale</em>, while Agnes and Daisy also cropped up. They are the daughters of the first novel&#8217;s protagonist and narrator June, who goes under the slave name Offred.</p>
<p class="p1">When the new story begins, Agnes lives in Gilead, while her sister lives in neighboring Canada and is appalled by the human rights abuses being perpetrated across the border.</p>
<p class="p1">But the third narrator, in particular, holds the reader in suspense: the Machiavellian leader of the Aunts – the group of women responsible for training and policing the handmaids.</p>
<p class="p1">The reader discovers her past as a free woman and her transformation into a monster through her survival instinct in the face of tyrannical men, and her aspiration for power to get her revenge.</p>
<p class="p1">Canadian writer Atwood took more than three decades to create the sequel, inspired by questions asked by her readers about the characters in the first book.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;Thirty-five years is a long time to think about possible answers, and the answers have changed as society itself has changed,&#8221; Atwood wrote in the novel&#8217;s acknowledgment.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;Countries, including the United States, are under more stresses now than they were three decades ago.&#8221;</p>
<p class="p1">The TV adaptation has brought <em>The Handmaid&#8217;s Tale</em> to a new audience.</p>
<p class="p1">The handmaids&#8217; white hats and red dresses have become a symbol of feminist struggles such as abortion and women&#8217;s rights campaigns in countries such as Argentina, Hungary, Ireland and Poland.</p>
<p class="p1">In the US, they have become an emblem of the anti-Trump and #MeToo movements.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-TogG9QUQ8I" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p class="p1"><em>– AFP</em></p>
Officials hold a joint press conference in a bid to dismiss rumors related to a police operation on August 31
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hk-government-to-counter-fake-news-rumors/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hk-government-to-counter-fake-news-rumors/<p>The Hong Kong government said it would make the maximum effort to provide correct information to the public and clarify rumors sweeping society, including speculation that several people had been killed in a police operation in Prince Edward MTR station on August 31.</p>
<p>A lot of fake news had been posted on the internet and people tended to believe it when it went viral, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said Tuesday. The public should remain calm and rational when they see things on the internet and should not be affected by rumors, she added.</p>
<p>The government will take the initiative to clarify incorrect information being circulated, she said.</p>
<figure id="attachment_377704" style="width: 323px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class=" wp-image-377704" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tung-Chung-station-September-7.jpg" alt="" width="323" height="194" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tung-Chung-station-September-7.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tung-Chung-station-September-7-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tung-Chung-station-September-7-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tung-Chung-station-September-7-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tung-Chung-station-September-7-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 323px) 100vw, 323px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Police stand by in Tung Chung station on September 7. Photo: RTHK</figcaption></figure>
<p>Hong Kong&#8217;s leader made the comments on Tuesday morning before the Executive Council&#8217;s weekly meeting, while criticizing “rioters” for damaging facilities in dozens of MTR stations over the past few weeks. She said the government and police had deployed a lot of resources to successfully avoid a suspension of airport services on September 7.</p>
<p>Read: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hk-airport-operating-under-heavy-police-guard/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HK airport operating under heavy police guard</a></p>
<p>She said the government condemned the violent behavior of radical protesters who vandalized MTR stations. She admitted it was difficult to protect all 90 MTR stations in the city as “rioters” were moved across the city.</p>
<p>Lam said it was wrong to say that it was legitimate to vandalize MTR stations.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378593" style="width: 321px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class=" wp-image-378593" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Carrie-Lam_Central-MTR.jpg" alt="" width="321" height="212" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Carrie-Lam_Central-MTR.jpg 800w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Carrie-Lam_Central-MTR-768x507.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 321px) 100vw, 321px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor inspects damage to Central MTR station on September 9. Photo: HK Govt</figcaption></figure>
<p>On Monday morning, Lam <a href="https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201909/09/P2019090900854.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inspected</a> the Central MTR station, which was vandalized by people wearing masks on Sunday evening. Wu Chi-Tai, a Democratic Party lawmaker, called Lam a hypocrite as she only cared about dead objects such as MTR facilities, instead of the injured young protesters.</p>
<figure id="attachment_374204" style="width: 321px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class=" wp-image-374204" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/MTR_Asia-Times.jpg" alt="" width="321" height="285" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/MTR_Asia-Times.jpg 900w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/MTR_Asia-Times-768x683.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 321px) 100vw, 321px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">MTR Corp is mocked as &#8216;the (Chinese Communist) Party&#8217;s train.&#8217; Photo: Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<p>Protesters have been attacking MTR stations over the past few weeks as they said the MTR Corp helped police suppress anti-extradition protests. They mocked the MTR in graffiti as &#8220;the (Chinese Communist) Party&#8217;s train.&#8221;</p>
<p>On August 11, riot police fired tear gas canisters inside Kwai Chung station, raising concerns that the MTR Corp had failed to protect the passengers.</p>
<p>On August 18, protesters held a legal rally in Victoria Park, but the MTR Corp shut down nearby stations, resulting in a serious traffic jam on Hong Kong. On August 24, the MTR Corp shut down the stations on half of the Kwun Tong line before a legal protest scheduled in east Kowloon.</p>
<p>On August 31, dozens of riot police rushed onto the platform at Prince Edward station and arrested 53 people, including some passersby. Police sealed off the station for two days while rumors circulated that some people were killed during the August 31 operation.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378606" style="width: 321px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class=" wp-image-378606" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Joint-press-conference-about-Prince-Edward-operation.jpg" alt="" width="321" height="203" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Joint-press-conference-about-Prince-Edward-operation.jpg 925w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Joint-press-conference-about-Prince-Edward-operation-768x486.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 321px) 100vw, 321px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Representatives of the Police Force, Fire Department, Hospital Authority and MTR Corp hold a joint press conference on September 10. Photo: RTHK</figcaption></figure>
<p>On Tuesday, representatives of the Police Force, Fire Department, Hospital Authority and MTR Corp held a joint press conference, trying to dismiss the rumors. Yu Hoi-kwan, senior superintendent of the Police Public Relations Branch, said no one died in the Prince Edward operation. She said police had not received any death or missing person reports related to the incident.</p>
<p>Lo Shun-tong, senior assistant chief ambulance officer of the Fire Department, said firefighters entered the Prince Edward station at 11:30pm and initially identified about 10 injured people. Lo said the number of injured people was later renewed to seven as previous counts could have 0verlaped.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378601" style="width: 318px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class=" wp-image-378601" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screenshots-of-CCTV_Prince-Edward_Aug31.jpg" alt="" width="318" height="250" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screenshots-of-CCTV_Prince-Edward_Aug31.jpg 800w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screenshots-of-CCTV_Prince-Edward_Aug31-768x603.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 318px) 100vw, 318px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Screenshots of the CCTV footages taken in Prince Edward on Aug.31 Photo: MTR Corp</figcaption></figure>
<p>The MTR Corp refused to release the closed-circuit television footage taken in Prince Edward station on August 31 and September 1, citing privacy reasons. It only disclosed some screenshots of the footage.</p>
<p><a href="https://lihkg.com/thread/1557402/page/1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">People online</a> were not convinced by the joint press conference. Citing video footage taken by SocREC, a non-government organization, they said some firemen were seen in the station at 11:10pm, while at least three people could have been killed between 11:10pm and 11:30pm. They demanded more information and CCTV footage be released.</p>
<p>Read: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/more-violence-by-police-vandalism-by-protesters/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">More violence by police, vandalism by protesters</a></p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vIau2kwxzZA?start=1&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
Chinese media say a deal is nowhere in sight, and the US pushed for restart in Washington early next month
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/talks-to-resume-but-dont-expect-a-deal-china-warns/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/talks-to-resume-but-dont-expect-a-deal-china-warns/<p>A phone call on Thursday morning Beijing time between Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has led to the resumption of bilateral talks, which will restart in early October in Washington DC.</p>
<p>Liu, a member of the Communist Party&#8217;s Politburo and Xi Jinping&#8217;s trusted lieutenant overseeing policies on economy and trade, was invited after a call by Lighthizer and Mnuchin. He told his US counterparts that Beijing was willing to restart face-to-face dialogue but was also ready to adopt more countervailing measures against more punitive tariffs, according to reports in Chinese papers this morning.</p>
<p>Both sides have agreed to maintain close contacts before the 13th round of the marathon China-US high-level economic and trade talks, scheduled to start on an unspecified date in early October in the US capital.</p>
<p>Xinhua also reported that working groups of both sides would conduct preparatory meetings &#8220;in earnest&#8221; as soon as in a week, &#8220;to create favorable conditions to achieve substantial progress&#8221; for the high-stakes talks in DC.</p>
<p>Liu&#8217;s delegation will again include Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan, People&#8217;s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang and senior officials with the National Development and Reform Commission, nicknamed China&#8217;s &#8220;mini-state council&#8221;.</p>
<p>Washington&#8217;s increased tariffs on more than half-a-trillion dollars worth of Chinese exports including garments, footwear, cameras and electric components, etc, and Beijing&#8217;s retaliation on US$75 billion worth of US goods have raised fears of a breakdown in the drawn-out trade disputes. But news about the new round of talks, originally meant to take place this month, has come as a relief.</p>
<figure id="attachment_377252" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-377252" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/20190730221026281.jpgwap.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="396" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A motorcade carrying members of the US delegation is seen in Shanghai at the end of July.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_377251" style="width: 608px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-377251" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/bkn-20190730070034212-0730_00952_001_01p.jpg" alt="" width="608" height="434" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Liu He, Robert Lighthizer and Steven Mnuchin are seen on a balcony of Shanghai&#8217;s Peace Hotel after a banquet inside the city&#8217;s iconic landmark on July 30. Photos: Weibo</figcaption></figure>
<p>In Beijing, however, party mouthpiece the People&#8217;s Daily also gave a caveat, saying the two sides will meet soon despite the fact a deal looks unlikely.</p>
<p>The broadsheet continued to blame Trump&#8217;s &#8220;flip-flopping&#8221; and a &#8220;bullying, arbitrary mentality&#8221; for stopping a deal being reached. It said the recent escalation of trade tension had violated the consensus reached by Xi and Trump in Argentina and Osaka, and that some US politicians lacked the consciousness to abide by consensus.</p>
<p>Beijing said that, in a show of goodwill to ease concerns of the US, Chinese importers had placed several sizeable orders for soybeans, cotton, sorghums and other agricultural goods on August 1, the day when Washington announced hiked tariffs. Chinese lawmakers had also changed legislation in just a few months and listed all fentanyl-related substances as &#8216;narcotics&#8217; starting from May 1.</p>
<p>The two sides last met in Shanghai at the end of July without reaching any deal.</p>
<figure id="attachment_377253" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-377253" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/1124514852_15582570986841n.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="532" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/1124514852_15582570986841n.jpg 800w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/1124514852_15582570986841n-768x511.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Shanghai&#8217;s Yangshan container port. News of resumed talks has come as a relief, but Beijing mouthpieces have played down expectations. Photo: Xinhua</figcaption></figure>
<p>Trump tweeted on Tuesday that a deal would &#8220;get much tougher and China&#8217;s supply chain will crumble and businesses, jobs and money will be gone&#8221; if he wins a second term.</p>
<p>But the US economy has already shown signs of fatigue, as manufacturing data contracted to 49.1 in August amid the trade war, its lowest level since Trump took office.</p>
Taipei is backing US entities to recover money from Beijing, since it took over the railways funded by the bonds
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/taiwan-says-it-wont-pay-century-old-debt-to-us/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/taiwan-says-it-wont-pay-century-old-debt-to-us/<p>Does Beijing or Taipei owe the United States up to one trillion dollars? The Trump administration is reportedly mulling actions to get back the money loaned to the government of Imperial China more than 100 years ago.</p>
<p>Offsprings and representatives of the original holders in the US of the &#8220;antique China debt&#8221; – issued by the Qing dynasty government (1644-1911) to fund China&#8217;s railway construction less than a year before the last monarchy was toppled in the 1911 Revolution led by Sun Yat-sen – insist that it is incumbent upon Beijing to pay back the money long overdue under the principle of the succession of states, Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-29/trump-s-new-trade-war-weapon-might-just-be-antique-china-debt">reported</a> at the end of August.</p>
<p>The total size of the defaulted bonds to be repaid in line with their conditions, factoring in inflation and interest, is estimated to hit the one trillion dollar mark, roughly the equivalent to Beijing&#8217;s US treasuries holdings.</p>
<p>The money was raised 108 years ago to fund the construction of the Hukuang Railway, as part of north-south and east-west arteries linking the central province of Hunan to the southern trading hub of Canton, now Guangzhou.</p>
<p>It has been reported that Trump, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross – both leading negotiators in the drawn-out talks to resolve the fraught trade war with China – met with some bondholders and their representatives earlier this year. The bondholders urged the president not to let Beijing absolve itself of the obligation.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378252" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-378252" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/故宫博物院正大光明殿_-_panoramio.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="531" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/故宫博物院正大光明殿_-_panoramio.jpg 800w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/故宫博物院正大光明殿_-_panoramio-768x510.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Tourists tour the Forbidden City in Beijing. The Qing dynasty was overthrown in the 1911 Revolution, the year the Republic of China was founded. Photo: Weibo</figcaption></figure>
<p>In response, Chinese state media, including Sina and Global Times, said that when the Communist republic was founded in October 1949, Mao Zedong ripped up all unfair treaties and bond and loan contracts from the Qing dynasty and subsequently the Republic of China (ROC) and that the People&#8217;s Republic of China (PRC) had no liability to pay back any debts in arrears when Chiang Kai-shek absconded to Taiwan with a bundle of loans that year.</p>
<p>Creditors seeking redress, said the newspapers, should look for repayment from the ROC government, implying that the government in Taipei should be the debtor.</p>
<p>But the American Bondholders Foundation, set up in 2001 to represent holders of pre-communist Chinese debts, said in a statement that the PRC dismissing its defaulted sovereign obligations as pre-1949 Qing or ROC debts contradicts Beijing&#8217;s own line, that it is the sole successor to the ROC’s sovereign right and status and the only legal government representing China.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378240" style="width: 400px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-378240" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/400x-1.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="516" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A certificate of the Qing dynasty sovereign bond issued in 1911. Photo: Handout</figcaption></figure>
<p>Taiwan has also stressed that its law governing cross-strait relations stipulates that it will not honor any claim of any debts or bonds owed by the mainland or issued there prior to 1949, until after &#8220;the unification of both sides,&#8221; admitting that repaying the US$1 trillion debt could deplete the island&#8217;s coffers.</p>
<p>Some of the island&#8217;s lawmakers said that many of the old bonds were issued by the Qing dynasty and subsequently the Kuomintang party-controlled ROC government before its retreat to Taiwan in 1949, so why should the ruling Democratic Progressive Party be responsible for them, especially when the railway projects financed by these loans are all on the mainland?</p>
<p>They say Beijing which took over all these projects from the ROC after the mainland fell to Mao&#8217;s Red Army should therefore pay back the bonds, even though the bonds predate the founding of the PRC.</p>
<p>A similar case in recent history went in Beijing&#8217;s favor. In 1979 there was a class action suit brought by some of these bondholders that actually brought Beijing to a US court, but the case was thrown out on the basis that the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which would allow US courts to hear cases against foreign governments for commercial claims, could not be retroactively applied to bonds issued at the turn of the 20th century.</p>
Indian LGBTQ+ community still does not have laws protecting them from discrimination and granting marriage rights
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/rallying-cry-for-queer-civil-rights-in-india/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/rallying-cry-for-queer-civil-rights-in-india/<p>One year has passed since the Supreme Court of India in a historic judgment <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2018/09/article/supreme-court-strikes-down-law-against-gay-sex-in-india/">ruled that Section 377 of the Penal Code can no longer be used to criminalize consensual sex between people of the same gender.</a></p>
<p>Justice Indu Malhotra, one of the five judges who delivered four concurrent verdicts on September 6 last year, said society owes the LGBTQ+ community an apology for the historical wrongs perpetrated against it. The judgment came as a beacon of hope to the hitherto criminalized queer community.</p>
<p>But one year on, the community feels that the government has done little for them and that the fight for equality is unfinished. Activists and lawyers say they are vexed about not yet having the right to receive legal recognition of same-sex relationships and about the lack of protective laws against discrimination and violence.</p>
<p>&#8220;The community is thriving not because of the government but despite the government,&#8221; said queer activist Harish Aiyer.</p>
<p>Debottam Saha, one of the petitioners who challenged Section 377, said, &#8220;Although the Supreme Court verdict has helped many to come out of the closet, the government has been apathetic to our struggles.&#8221;</p>
<h4>Lack of security</h4>
<p>Saha, who was part of a pan-India group of 20 students and alumni of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology who took the fight to the Supreme Court, added, &#8220;The government has taken no initiative for sensitization of the larger community to eliminate stigma and discrimination although it was suggested by the verdict.&#8221;</p>
<p>“Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a violation of freedom of speech and expression,” Chief Justice of India Deepak Misra and Justice Ajay Manikrao Khanwilkar said in the landmark judgment in 2018.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gaystarnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Indian-LGBT-Workplace-Climate-Survey-2016.pdf">A 2016 survey</a> of Indian LGBTQ+ employees, the Mission for Indian Gay and Lesbian Empowerment, an advocacy group, found that 40% had been harassed at work and the majority were not covered by anti-discriminatory workplace policies. At least two-thirds of the respondents also reported having heard homophobic comments in the workplace.</p>
<p>Delhi-based lawyer Mihir Samson, who was part of the legal battle against Section 377, said, &#8220;We are aiming for an anti-discrimination law that not only applies to the government and its institutions but also extends to the private sector.&#8221;</p>
<p>Violence and harassment faced by LGBTQ+ persons have not decreased noticeably after the abrogation of Section 377 but it has let people assert their rights by approaching courts.</p>
<p>For instance, in October last year, the Delhi High Court granted police protection to a lesbian couple who fled their hometown in Rajasthan and came to Delhi feeling a threat to their lives from their respective families. Similar stories were <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/states/west-bengal/shield-for-lesbian-couple/cid/1691446">found in Kolkata</a>, in the eastern state of West Bengal and <a href="https://www.latestlaws.com/latest-news/same-sex-marriage-cousins-in-varanasi-marry-against-family-wishes-holy-city-shocked/">Varanasi</a>, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.</p>
<p>Samson said, &#8220;We need a law that protects queer persons from violence perpetrated by their families and intimate partners. Persons belonging to the LGBTQ+ community often face domestic violence. They are sometimes thrown out of their houses by their families and unable to complete their education.&#8221; He noted that immediate steps needed to be taken to set up emergency shelters for queer runaway couples and individuals, and ensure their access to education and employment.</p>
<p>Members of the queer community are often targeted for extortion and threatened with being taken to the police or outed to their families or colleagues, said Saha. &#8220;We don&#8217;t have any law to protect us from this persecution. Neither do we have mental health support.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/Worldbank/document/SAR/economic-costs-homophobia-lgbt-exlusion-india.pdf">A 2014 World Bank estimate</a> shows that homophobia costs India around $30 billion a year (around 1.7% of national GDP) because of lower educational achievements, loss of productivity and the healthcare cost to LGBTQ+ people who are poor, stressed, suicidal or HIV positive.</p>
<h4>Law is straight</h4>
<p>Despite the Supreme Court&#8217;s progressive judgment, the overall legal regime for queer persons in India remains severely lacking.</p>
<p>&#8220;Laws governing inheritance, employment and marriage continue to treat males and females differently, and do not recognize genders outside the binary,&#8221; notes <a href="https://vidhilegalpolicy.in/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Queering-the-Law_Introduction.pdf">a recent report</a> by Vidhi Center for Legal Policy, a think tank.</p>
<p>The report underlines the need for a &#8220;gender-neutral sexual harassment law&#8221; that would extend protection to queer persons. Currently, India&#8217;s sexual harassment and rape laws only provide recourse to cisgender (identifying as their sex assigned at birth) women and leave adult men, transgender and intersex persons vulnerable to such crimes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Queer persons also often face challenges when trying to claim the family property as theirs,&#8221; said Aiyar. The country&#8217;s inheritance laws also do not accommodate persons outside the gender binary.</p>
<p>Same-sex couples, in the absence of marriage rights, do not get adoption rights or spousal benefits such as medical and life insurances, Aiyar noted. &#8220;We need a strong companionship law making same-sex unions a legal contract.&#8221;</p>
<p>LGBTQ+ couples also miss out on financial benefits. Married spouses can make gifts, of property or other assets, to their partners without incurring tax liability. But a couple from the LGBTQ+ community cannot do the same in excess of Rs 50,000, as it will attract a gift tax.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is because one&#8217;s same-sex partner is considered a stranger to them in the eyes of the law unless they are married and recognized as family,&#8221; said Utsav Trivedi, an advocate in the Supreme Court specializing in finance. He suggested that the Special Marriages Act, 1954, could be expanded to bring in same-sex marriages. The law was enacted to facilitate inter-faith and inter-caste marriages and bypass the assumptions under personal laws of religious groups.</p>
<p>Laws based on binary gender affect transgenders the most. Take the case of the Navy.</p>
<p>In 2017, the Navy <a href="https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/delhi-hc-asks-navy-reconsider-firing-transgender-woman-sabi-puts-faith-court-70823">decided to discharge</a> a serving Navy sailor – a trans woman (assigned male at birth) who underwent sex reassignment surgery—because females cannot work in the Navy as sailors. The former sailor has sought the Delhi High Court&#8217;s directions for reinstatement in the same rank and pay in the navy. The matter remains pending before the court.</p>
<p>The only bill the federal government is trying to enact for transgender people has been criticized for being &#8220;highly problematic.&#8221; The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill 2019, passed by the Lok Sabha last month, provides an anti-discrimination framework and a national council to create policies and lays down the process to obtain identity documents.</p>
<p>But the transgender community is vehemently opposed to the law, which was drafted as a result of the landmark National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India judgment that extended fundamental rights to transgenders. For one thing, it lacks provision for affirmative action.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Transgender Persons Bill does not provide reservation or employment guarantees. Moreover, it has a lesser punishment for crimes against trans persons as compared to the penalty for crimes against women,&#8221; said activist Harish Aiyer.</p>
<p>Nevertheless the LGBTQ+ community is not completely hopeless as they prepare for a better future, said Aiyar, who added: &#8220;We want all the rights and we will fight for them all.&#8221;</p>
Talks between Washington and Beijing next month are unlikely to dispel the gloom
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/trade-war-horror-show-grips-china-and-the-us/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/trade-war-horror-show-grips-china-and-the-us/<p class="p1">Twists, turns and gasps of sheer horror. The year-long trade war between the United States and China is starting to resemble a John Carpenter gore-fest.</p>
<p class="p1">In the past six months, the fallout out from rising tensions rippling through Washington and Beijing has slashed global growth. Already the specter of recession is starting to loom large over major economies.</p>
<p class="p1">At times, the rhetoric has been shrill and confrontational. In between, there have been moments of calm with more than a hint of pragmatism.</p>
<p class="p1">Still, fears persist that the conflict could drag on into 2020 or election year for US President Donald Trump.</p>
<p class="p1">Senior officials inside China’s government have made it clear that they are in for the long-haul while offering tantalizing morsels of compromise.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;It is likely that they can solve the problems … I would say that the possibility is 60% [to] 70%,” Huo Jianguo, the vice-chairman of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies, said during a panel discussion <a href="https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-09-07/china-and-us-could-reach-partial-trade-deal-within-six-months-experts-say-101460102.html">at the China Development Forum</a> in Beijing last week.</p>
<p class="p1">“Both [sides] are willing to talk. A breakthrough could be made if both sides show a bit of flexibility,” he pointed out, adding that a deal could be done in the next six months or early 2020.</p>
<h4>Sticking plaster</h4>
<p class="p1">Hue’s words certainly carry weight as the Beijing-based think tank is closely <a href="http://english.mofcom.gov.cn/">linked to the Ministry of Commerce</a>. But even if an agreement was thrashed out, it is unlikely that it would last much longer than a sticking plaster.</p>
<p class="p1">Insiders involved in the Trump administration have highlighted China’s predatory practices during the past 20 years. American companies, they feel, are being entangled in excessive red tape when doing business in the world’s second-largest economy.</p>
<p class="p1">What is required is a “level playing field” and “a fair, balanced reciprocal agreement.”</p>
<p class="p1">Yet other issues remain. Forced technology transfer and perceived cybersecurity concerns have broadened the range of Washington grievances, encompassing President Xi Jinping’s high-tech blueprint the Made in China 2025 policy, or what is now known as Intelligent Plus.</p>
<p class="p1">Talks scheduled for early next month in Washington are unlikely to solve these problems.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g6wBzkW6-Yk" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s difficult at this stage to see how there can be a deal or at least a good deal,&#8221; Julian Evans-Pritchard, a senior <a href="https://www.capitaleconomics.com/">China economist at Capital Economics</a>, said. &#8220;Since talks broke down back in May, the position of both sides has hardened and there have been other complications, <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/huawei-will-dominate-the-world/">namely the Huawei ban</a> and Hong Kong [pro-democracy] protests, which have made it even more difficult to bridge the gap.”</p>
<p class="p1">So the economic pain continues.</p>
<p class="p1">On September 1, the US imposed 15% tariffs on Chinese imports worth US$125 billion. Another round of duties on products worth more $160 billion is due to come into force on December 15. In addition, the existing 25% tax on goods worth $250 billion will rise to 30% on October 1.</p>
<p class="p1">Beijing has retaliated by targeting US exports worth $120 billion.</p>
<p class="p1">“A deal of this size and scope and central global importance, I don’t think 18 months is a very long time,” Larry Kudlow, the White House economic adviser, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-meetings/us-china-trade-conflict-could-take-years-to-resolve-kudlow-idUSKCN1VR1S7">told a media briefing last week</a>. “The stakes are so high, we have to get it right, and if that takes a decade, so be it,” he added, drawing parallels to the Cold War with the old Soviet Union.</p>
<h4>Factory activity</h4>
<p class="p1">Shockwaves, in the meantime, continue to reverberate through Xi’s state-run economy with the tremors being felt across the globe.</p>
<p class="p1">On Sunday, data showed that China’s exports fell 1% in August compared to the same period in 2018, while goods and products destined for the US plunged 16% year-on-year. Imports from America slumped 22.4%.</p>
<p class="p1">Further evidence of the downturn came on Tuesday when official figures revealed that factory-gate prices shrank at the sharpest pace since 2016. Fuelled by a weakness in raw material costs, the producer price index, or PPI, dropped 0.8% in August compared to the same period last year.</p>
<p class="p1">Earlier, numbers released by the National Bureau of Statistics highlighted a slowdown in China’s factory activity, which was squeezed in August for the fourth month in a row. The Purchasing Managers’ Index, or PMI, fell to <a href="http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/">49.5 compared to 49.7 last month</a> amid sluggish domestic demand. A figure below the 50-point mark signals a contraction.</p>
<p class="p1">Back in July, industrial output plummeted to its lowest level in 17 years, while retail sales suffered as shoppers started to feel the pinch.</p>
<p class="p1">The <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/weak-employment-report-confirms-slowing-us-economy/">US economy is also showing signs</a> of stress as Washington and Beijing dig in.</p>
<p class="p1">“Everything will be on the table,” Kudlow said, referring to the talks in October. “You can rest assured, for example, the absolute key structural issues – the IP [intellectial property] theft, the forced transfer of technology, the cyberspace, the clouds, financial services, all of that will be on the table – agriculture purchases, industrial purchases, energy purchases, getting tariff and non-tariff barriers down.”</p>
<p class="p1">Expect rhetorical blood on the table in Washington and cue the spooky music from Carpenter’s horror classic <em>Halloween</em>.</p>
African swine fever results in a 46.7% price surge in August, fueling a rise in food inflation
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hogageddon-forces-up-pork-prices-in-china/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hogageddon-forces-up-pork-prices-in-china/<p class="p1">Hogageddon forced up food inflation in China last month as pork prices surged by 46.7% on the back of an African swine fever epidemic in the world’s second-largest economy.</p>
<p class="p1">The year-on-year jump illustrated the depth of the problem after millions of pigs were slaughtered, or died, from the outbreak.</p>
<p class="p1">Data from <a href="http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/">the National Bureau of Statistics</a> showed that the cost of food in the official Consumer Price Index, or CPI, jumped by 10% in August compared to the same period last year.</p>
<p class="p1">Significantly, that was the highest level in more than seven years.</p>
<p class="p1">“Consumer price inflation should accelerate in the coming months as pig stocks continue to fall,” Julian Evans-Pritchard and Martin Rasmussen, economists with Capital Economics, wrote in a note released on Tuesday.</p>
<p class="p1">The knock-on effect also hit beef, mutton and chicken prices, which soared <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/10/china-economy-inflation-ppi-cpi-and-pork-prices-in-august.html">by between 11.6% and 12.5%</a> last month compared to the same period in 2018. Unseasonal weather continued to play havoc with fresh fruit prices, which increased by 24% year-on-year, although it was down from July’s 39% rise.</p>
<p class="p1">“But the upcoming [reserve requirement ratio] cuts announced last Friday are in line with our view that rampant food price inflation is not a barrier to monetary easing, and we continue to anticipate further loosening in the next few quarters,” Evans-Pritchard and Rasmussen said.</p>
<p class="p1">They were referring to the decision last week by <a href="https://www.centralbanking.com/central-banks/monetary-policy/4416476/china-lowers-reserve-requirements-after-premiers-intervention">the People’s Bank of China</a> to reduce the amount of funds banks have to hold in reserve in a move to stimulate the economy as the trade war with the United States drags on.</p>
<p class="p1">Still, it was the rise in pork prices which have grabbed the headlines during the past three months.</p>
<p class="p1">Up to 200 million pigs could die, or be culled, in China this year after contracting African swine fever. If that happens, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-output-pork/china-warns-of-soaring-pork-prices-as-virus-curbs-output-idUSKCN1RT0A5">pork prices could soar by 70%</a>, according to a senior Chinese official who declined to be named.</p>
<h4>&#8216;Hog cycle&#8217;</h4>
<p class="p1">In March, a report by Nomura backed up that assessment. <a href="https://www.nomura.com/">The Japanese bank warned in</a> a report that prices could rise to 33 yuan (US$4.90) per kilogram by January 2020 from February’s figure of 18.5 yuan-per-kilogram. That would represent a 78% price hike.</p>
<p class="p1">“Despite the rise in pork prices, pig farmers may be reluctant to increase hog stocks on concerns about [African swine fever],” Nomura’s analysts said in the study.</p>
<p class="p1">“In this regard, the upturn of the hog cycle could last longer and drive pork prices higher,” they added.</p>
<p class="p1">Reports about the highly-contagious virus have been sketchy in China’s state-run media for fear of triggering panic buying. Even the official statistics are vague.</p>
<p class="p1">In April, the <a href="http://english.agri.gov.cn/">Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs</a> confirmed that China’s sow population had plunged 21% in March compared to the same period in 2019. But detailed numbers were missing from the statement.</p>
<h4>Swine fever</h4>
<p class="p1">“Second quarter [pork production has seen] a marked drop from the first quarter, and the third quarter could be even bigger,” Feng Yonghui, the chief analyst at industry website Soozhu.com, said.</p>
<p class="p1">The full impact of African swine fever in the pig industry first came under the spotlight in a 2018 report by the <a href="http://www.fao.org/asiapacific/news/detail-events/en/c/1151823/">United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Regional Office</a> for Asia and the Pacific. “[There is a] major threat to the swine industry in China and to the livelihoods of small-scale farmers and others along the value chain,” the study stated.</p>
<p class="p1">“Because pork is produced and consumed by so many Asian countries, particularly in East and Southeast Asia, the introduction of the virus to other countries of the region is a near certainty,” it continued.</p>
<p class="p1">“In its most virulent strain, it is 100% fatal to infected pigs. However, unlike swine flu, ASF [African swine fever] poses no direct health threat to humans,” the report added.</p>
<p class="p1">Earlier this year, <a href="https://www.pigprogress.net/Health/Articles/2019/4/ASF-China-Rabobank-predicts-30-reduction-of-pork-416452E/">a study by Rabobank</a> predicted that the ASF virus could wipe out between 150 million and 200 million pigs in China. The fallout from mass infections would result in nearly a 50% drop in pork production.</p>
<p class="p1">“The key question &#8230; is what is the true severity of China’s African Swine Fever outbreak? And, actually, no one, not even Beijing, knows the answer,” Rory Green, an economist at TS Lombard, said.</p>
<p class="p1">For China, pork prices will continue to rise in the second half of the year unless ‘hogageddon’ can be contained.</p>
With the world’s most start-ups per capita, the country has carved a niche
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/israeli-high-tech-looks-to-future-whoever-wins-vote/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/israeli-high-tech-looks-to-future-whoever-wins-vote/<p>Inside a sleek, gleaming building with views over the Mediterranean, the co-founder of the navigation app Waze appears on a life-sized screen with words of advice on his red T-shirt.</p>
<p>&#8220;Fall in love with the problem not the solution,&#8221; Uri Levine&#8217;s shirt says in the exhibit at Tel Aviv&#8217;s Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, which serves in part as a shrine to Israel&#8217;s long list of technological accomplishments.</p>
<p>With all due respect to Levine, his native Israel has done both when it comes to high-tech.</p>
<p>The success of Israel&#8217;s high-tech industry is one of the few subjects not up for debate ahead of September 17 elections, and those involved are looking at ways to build on the achievements of the &#8220;start-up nation&#8221; no matter who wins.</p>
<p>With the world&#8217;s most start-ups per capita, Israel has carved a niche.</p>
<p>It has served as an incubator for brands like Waze, now owned by Google; web-publishing firm Wix; and Mobileye, an autonomous driving company bought by Intel in 2017.</p>
<p>Giants such as Intel, Facebook and Google also have operations in the country, helping form its Silicon <em>Wadi</em> – valley.</p>
<p>But with those feats behind it, the industry is looking towards new challenges: increasing employment in the sector, having more firms grow in Israel rather than being acquired abroad and maintaining an edge as competition increases.</p>
<p>&#8220;As a small country, you have to work extra hard to be on the radar screen,&#8221; said Eugene Kandel, a professor at Jerusalem&#8217;s Hebrew University and CEO of Start-Up Nation Central, a non-profit that promotes Israeli innovation.</p>
<p>&#8220;In some sense, we have no luxury of staying on a plateau, which a much bigger country could afford.&#8221;</p>
<h4>&#8216;We try to survive&#8217;</h4>
<p>Beyond economic effects, the sector and innovation more generally have served as a calling card, thanks to which Israel has been able to incorporate offers of technological cooperation to countries with which it is seeking to build relations.</p>
<p>That technology has often come in the form of defense equipment and arms, while spy software developed in Israel has attracted deep controversy.</p>
<p>Israel&#8217;s more than 50-year occupation of Palestinian territory is also a major source of criticism from the international community.</p>
<p>But programs in such areas as agriculture and water recycling have served it well.</p>
<p>As one example, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talks up Israel&#8217;s advancements in tomato cultivation. The government has played a role with tax advantages and through its Innovation Authority.</p>
<p>Mandatory military service for most Jewish Israelis contributes since many receive technological training there, particularly those in the elite Unit 8200 for signal intelligence.</p>
<p>But some also name two aspects of the Israeli ethos: the need to innovate in a country in the desert and chutzpah, or audacity.</p>
<p>&#8220;In Israel, we try to survive,&#8221; said Revital Hollander of Interdisciplinary Centre Herzliya, an Israeli university that recently hosted business students from Canada&#8217;s McGill University to collaborate and participate in a hackathon.</p>
<p>&#8220;Basically we are always in a situation where we need to solve problems, and this is our state of mind.&#8221;</p>
<p>Employment in high-tech rose in 2018 to 8.7 percent of Israel&#8217;s total compared with 8.3 percent the previous year, according to figures from the government, which is seeking to increase that number.</p>
<p>Those involved in the industry talk about encouraging start-ups to &#8220;scale-up&#8221; – grow their businesses – rather than cashing in on lucrative acquisition offers from abroad.</p>
<p>To spread the wealth, Israel has been seeking to turn the city of Beersheba in the country&#8217;s desert south into a major tech hub, including through the relocation of military tech units there.</p>
<h4>&#8216;Our responsibility&#8217;</h4>
<p>But reverence for what Israel has already created is plentiful.</p>
<p>It could be seen recently in Herzliya near Tel Aviv, where the Canadian and Israeli students collaborated.</p>
<p>Jiro Kondo, a professor at McGill&#8217;s Desautels faculty of management, said the &#8220;ecosystem&#8221; Israel had created was unique considering its starting point.</p>
<p>&#8220;The only example in the last 40 years where I can think of something that went from zero to something that&#8217;s successful not just in dollars invested but value created &#8230; is in Israel,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>At the Peres Center, founded by former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres, the story of the country&#8217;s innovation begins even before its 1948 founding, told through virtual reality and interactive presentations.</p>
<p>Its focus is less on its economic aspects than on how it can improve lives.</p>
<p>&#8220;And innovation is a tool for that,&#8221; deputy director general Yarden Leal said from Peres&#8217;s former office, still housing his books and Nobel peace prize.</p>
<p><em>– AFP</em></p>
Peace talks are ‘dead as far as I am concerned’; Taliban responds with fighting words
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/trump-says-hes-ramping-up-war-with-taliban/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/trump-says-hes-ramping-up-war-with-taliban/<p>President Donald Trump on Monday said that US peace talks with the Taliban are &#8220;dead&#8221; and that he is ramping the war back up after canceling secret talks with the Afghan insurgents at his weekend retreat.</p>
<p>&#8220;They are dead. As far as I am concerned, they are dead,&#8221; Trump said at the White House about the long-running attempt to reach an agreement with the Taliban and extricate US troops following 18 years of war.</p>
<p>The announcement followed Trump&#8217;s dramatic cancelation of a top-secret plan to fly Taliban leaders in for direct talks at the Camp David presidential facility outside Washington.</p>
<p>Driving another nail into the coffin of what had appeared to be nearly finalized negotiations, Trump said that a US military onslaught on the guerrillas was back up at its fiercest in a decade.</p>
<p>&#8220;Over the last four days, we have been hitting our Enemy harder than at any time in the last ten years!&#8221; he wrote in a tweet.</p>
<p>On Sunday Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, &#8220;We&#8217;ve killed over a thousand Taliban in just the last 10 days.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Taliban on Tuesday followed suit, vowing to continue fighting against US forces and saying Washington would regret abandoning negotiations.</p>
<p>The renewed war of words between the two sides raised the spectre of violence in Afghanistan as Trump and the Taliban pledged to take the fight to each other following the precipitous collapse in talks.</p>
<p>&#8220;We had two ways to end occupation in Afghanistan, one was jihad and fighting, the other was talks and negotiations,&#8221; Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP.</p>
<p>&#8220;If Trump wants to stop talks, we will take the first way and they will soon regret it.&#8221;</p>
<h4>Whiplash</h4>
<p>Trump angrily denied that the whiplash effect of his sudden shifts on Afghanistan was causing turmoil.</p>
<p>Until this weekend, there had been steadily mounting expectations of a deal that would see the United States draw down troop levels in Afghanistan. In return, the Taliban would offer security guarantees to keep extremist groups out.</p>
<p>But then on Saturday, Trump revealed that he had canceled an unprecedented meeting between the Taliban and himself at storied Camp David.</p>
<p>He said this was in retaliation for the killing of a US soldier by the Taliban in a huge Kabul bomb blast last week.</p>
<p>The cancelation – announced on Twitter – was the first time most Americans learned that such a dramatic meeting was even planned.</p>
<p>Many in Washington were shocked and some were angry that the Taliban had been on the point of visiting the presidential retreat on the eve of the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.</p>
<p>There was also widespread consternation at the characteristically unpredictable manner of Trump&#8217;s negotiating style.</p>
<p>But Trump denied any discord among government members including Vice President Mike Pence.</p>
<p>In a tweet, he accused journalists of trying &#8220;to create the look of turmoil in the White House, of which there is none.&#8221;</p>
<p>Trump added that he had no second thoughts about his actions.</p>
<p>&#8220;In terms of advisers, I took my own advice,&#8221; he later told reporters.</p>
<h4>&#8216;Murdering too many&#8217;</h4>
<p>A big part of Trump&#8217;s 2016 election victory and subsequent first term in office has been his determination to keep the United States out of what he sees as unnecessary wars in Syria and other mostly Muslim countries.</p>
<p>Despite a fiercely pro-Israeli foreign policy and the presence of hawks like national security adviser John Bolton in his inner circle, he has so far resisted escalating the military standoff with longtime foe Iran.</p>
<p>Getting out of Afghanistan, where US troops have fought a largely fruitless war against the Taliban over nearly two decades, was a top priority. It is widely thought that Trump has been pushing for a withdrawal of US troops in time for his 2020 reelection bid.</p>
<p>Trump repeated on Monday that he wanted &#8220;to get out by the earliest possible time.&#8221;</p>
<p>However, whether because of last week&#8217;s killing of a US soldier, as he says, or due to wider misgivings, that goal now appears in tatters.</p>
<p>&#8220;They did a mistake,&#8221; Trump said of the Taliban&#8217;s deadly bomb attack.</p>
<p>Several Republican lawmakers concurred with the president&#8217;s decision on the talks.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve never believed that a deal with the Taliban is either easy or imminent,&#8221; Senator Marco Rubio said.</p>
<p>Senator Mitt Romney said, &#8220;It wouldn&#8217;t have been my choice to have the Taliban at Camp David&#8221; – an opinion echoed by Senator Ron Johnson, who said he was &#8220;glad&#8221; the talks were not held there.</p>
<p>&#8220;At some point in time if you want peace you have to talk to them, I don&#8217;t deny that,&#8221; said Johnson.</p>
<p>&#8220;But right now they&#8217;re murdering too many people.&#8221;</p>
<p><em>AFP</em></p>
Indian passenger vehicle sales suffered 10th straight monthly decline in August; automakers want a tax cut
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/no-relief-in-sight-for-indian-carmakers/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/no-relief-in-sight-for-indian-carmakers/<p>August sales numbers released by the Indian automakers&#8217; body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers suggest that the ongoing slowdown in the automotive sector is going to be a long drawn-out one. There&#8217;s little relief in sight.</p>
<p>The passenger vehicle industry suffered its worst-ever monthly sales performance in August. Domestic sales of passenger vehicles plunged 31.6% to 196,524 units from a year earlier, according to data released by the automakers&#8217; body. Sales of passenger cars declined 41% to 115,957 units.</p>
<p>It was the 10th straight decline in domestic passenger vehicle sales and the worst since the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers began compiling monthly sales data in 1997-98.</p>
<p>Owing to ongoing weak sales, automakers did not step up production as they fear that sales may not pick up in the coming months. Car sales in India are measured as factory dispatches and not retail sales.</p>
<p>On the bright side, utility vehicles weathered the slowdown to a great extent and their sales fell only 2% in August to 71,478 units, thanks to a slew of new models. The newly launched Hyundai Venue, Renault Triber, MG Motors Hector, Kia Motors Seltos and Mahindra XUV300 evoked buyer interest, bucking the industry trend.</p>
<p>In the commercial vehicle segment, sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles declined 54% to 15,573 vehicles. Light commercial vehicles also declined by 28% year-on-year to 36,324 units.</p>
<p>Sales of two-wheelers declined 22% to 1.51 million units in August from a year ago. Motorcycle sales fell 22% to 937,486 units, while scooters also posted a 22% drop in sales to 520,898 units.</p>
<p>Automakers have already cut thousands of temporary jobs and warned the government of more job cuts if it does not intervene through a reduction in goods and services tax from 28% to 18%. The current slowdown has led several companies to freeze their investment plans for either building new factories or expanding existing facilities.</p>
<p>The next meeting of the Goods and Services Tax Council will be held on September 20. Some buyers have reportedly deferred their purchases hoping that the government will reduce tax on vehicles.</p>
<p>However, industry watchers point out that as consumption demand in rural markets has been hit by a decline in farm income and floods in different parts of the country, a turnaround in auto sales is unlikely in the coming months.</p>
Gives Galaxy Fold a competitive advantage over the Huawei product, which will launch without Google apps
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/samsung-works-with-google-to-provide-apps-with-the-foldable-phone/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/samsung-works-with-google-to-provide-apps-with-the-foldable-phone/<p>Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday that it had collaborated with Google, app partners and Android developers to provide apps that fit its recently launched first foldable smartphone, Galaxy Fold.</p>
<p>“Efforts to design this software experience for the Galaxy Fold began at the framework level in April 2018,” Samsung said in a press release. “Samsung developed a whole new UX [user experience] and collaborated closely with Google to provide integrated OS support from Android.”</p>
<p>According to the press release, Samsung and Google set up test labs in cities across the globe – from Seoul to Mountain View to Beijing – to test apps for the foldable phone since Samsung introduced the foldable Infinity Flex Display, which is used for Galaxy Fold. Besides, Google changed its Android 10 operating system to optimize it for the foldable device.</p>
<p>Samsung launched GalaxiyFold last week in South Korea with the hefty price tag of 2,398,000 won (US$2,002). It offers a 4.6-inch cover display and 7.3-inch display when unfolded. It also has a “Multi-Active-Window” for stronger multitasking, with the 7.2-inch screen divided into two or three parts.</p>
<p>Samsung said the change in Android 10 offers “improved resizable activity, multi-resume functionality, and updated Android Emulator to help support multiple-display type switching.“</p>
<p>Samsung has also worked with app partners such as Amazon Prime Video, App in the Air, Facebook, Microsoft Twitter, and Spotify to optimize their apps for the Galaxy Fold.</p>
<p>“We didn’t just build new category-defining hardware, we worked with major partners to design and deliver a brand-new mobile experience and foster an ecosystem that gives users access to the best applications and services,” said ES Chung, Samsung’s Head of Software and AI, Mobile Communications Business.</p>
<p>Sagar Kamble, Director of Product Management for Android at Google, said in the Samsung press release, “Together with ecosystem partners like Samsung, we have the opportunity to deliver an entirely new user experience that could transform the way we use our smartphones.”</p>
<p>Samsung’s rival Huawei, blacklisted by the US government, also plans to release a foldable phone, called the Mate X, but Samsung took the lead as Huawei has not announced its schedule.</p>
<p>Unlike Samsung with its software support from Google, Huawei will launch the Mate 30 without key Google apps such as Gmail, Maps, and YouTube due to sanctions imposed by Washington, creating a disadvantage in competition.</p>
Unlike the 40,000 visas given after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, the door isn’t as open as before
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hong-kong-protesters-seek-australian-safe-haven/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hong-kong-protesters-seek-australian-safe-haven/<p>Hong Kong money is starting to flow into Australian real estate as wealthy families seek a safe haven from the Chinese enclave’s political turmoil. But relocation prospects are not so bright for activists who fear retaliation from Beijing.</p>
<p>Migration agents say there has been a flood of inquiries about Australian residency permits as the pro-democracy protests enter a fourth month, with most hoping to use business or investment visas to secure the permits.</p>
<p>“These are all people from Hong Kong of Chinese origin who are successful, established businesspeople,” Monika Tu, director of real estate agency Black Diamondz Group International, recently told the Domain website.</p>
<p>The rich are planning their exit strategies in case Beijing sends in the troops and the city’s economy goes pear-shaped. Australia is the most popular refuge because it is relatively close to Hong Kong and already has more than 1.2 million Chinese in residence, 6.5% of whom were born in Hong Kong.</p>
<p>In 2018, one-third of all people leaving Hong Kong settled in Australia, more than any other country worldwide. However, it may not offer a lifeline for those involved in the rolling political protests who don’t pass the wealth test.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378530" style="width: 1400px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-378530" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Hong-Kong-Protests-Flag-Legco-Twitter.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="788" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Hong-Kong-Protests-Flag-Legco-Twitter.jpg 1400w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Hong-Kong-Protests-Flag-Legco-Twitter-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Protesters place a Hong Kong British colonial flag in the Legislative Chamber after they broke into the building on July 1. Photo: Twitter</figcaption></figure>
<p>While Canberra famously handed out 40,000 visas to Chinese students after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre to protect them from any state retribution, it has so far shown much less enthusiasm for a Hong Kong scheme.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared in a radio interview that it was “not for us” to tell other countries how to run their affairs and it would be “premature” to talk about offering permanent residency to the 19,000 people from Hong Kong living in Australia, most of whom are students or tourists.</p>
<p>“I think what we have to do in this situation, as I’ve said all along, is to remain calm. We’re closely assessing the situation,” Morrison added.</p>
<p>Protest leaders met in Australia last week to seek assurances that Hong Kong students would be safe on campuses following clashes in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide between opposing pro-Beijing and pro-democracy camps. Some students complained of death threats.</p>
<p>“We want to come here and give them support, and also to urge the Australian government to try to use a more assertive attitude to protect our students here in Australia,” said Sunny Cheung, a local protest leader.</p>
<figure id="attachment_367714" style="width: 1500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-367714" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Australia-China-University-of-Queensland-4UQ-July-2019-.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1097" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Australia-China-University-of-Queensland-4UQ-July-2019-.jpg 1500w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Australia-China-University-of-Queensland-4UQ-July-2019--768x562.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Activists protest against Chinese government influence at the University of Queensland in Australia. Photo: Twitter</figcaption></figure>
<p>Representatives of the Hong Kong Higher Institutions International Affairs Delegation, an umbrella group for universities, later met with Australian politicians. They reportedly want assurances that authorities will not force students to return home if they might be targeted over protest activities.</p>
<p>Some also want Australia to offer visas to activists in Hong Kong if China responds with force. However, migration is a sensitive subject for Morrison’s conservative government, as is its very touchy relationship with China.</p>
<p>The migration intake has been progressively tightened since a Liberal-Nationals coalition took power in 2013 and asylum seekers have been deterred by an uncompromising mix of detentions and boat pushbacks.</p>
<p>Changes in permanent migration that put priority on economic arrivals have slashed the intake from 190,000 in 2015-16 to a likely threshold of 160,000 this year.</p>
<p>Strict conditions on entry, including a requirement to live in regional centers, mean the actual 2019-20 intake may be closer to 150,000.</p>
<figure id="attachment_164874" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-164874" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Australia-China-Real-Estate-Property-June-21-2017-e1559889096942.jpg" alt="A woman walks by Chinese language advertisements for Australian property in Sydney's Chinatown on June 21, 2017. Photo: AFP/William West " width="1600" height="964" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Australia-China-Real-Estate-Property-June-21-2017-e1559889096942.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Australia-China-Real-Estate-Property-June-21-2017-e1559889096942-768x463.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Australia-China-Real-Estate-Property-June-21-2017-e1559889096942-1568x945.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Australia-China-Real-Estate-Property-June-21-2017-e1559889096942-300x180.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A woman walks by Chinese language advertisements for Australian property in Sydney&#8217;s Chinatown on June 21, 2017. Photo: AFP/William West</figcaption></figure>
<p>Australia also accepts about 17,000 refugees per year, but only about a third are categorized as humanitarian arrivals or people “at risk.” These include 3,790 one-off visas for people displaced by conflict in Syria and Iraq.</p>
<p>Adding to the economic focus, Australia is also trying to implement a free trade agreement with Hong Kong, and is wary of any actions that might be seen as taking sides. Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on September 6 that the unrest should not be a reason for delaying the start of the trade deal.</p>
<p>Some legislators, however, don’t agree. The parliamentary treaties committee said the treatment of protestors would be a factor in its consideration of the FTA, which was signed in March but has not yet been ratified by Canberra.</p>
<p>“Of course we will watch very closely the developments in Hong Kong but I don’t think at this point in time it’s a reason for the treaties committee not to adjudicate on the FTA,” Payne said in response.</p>
<figure id="attachment_164872" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-164872" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Australia-China-Flags-2008.jpg" alt="Chinese people wave Chinas and Australian national flags in Canberra, Australia in a file photo. Photo: AFP" width="1600" height="1067" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Australia-China-Flags-2008.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Australia-China-Flags-2008-580x387.jpg 580w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Chinese people wave Chinese and Australian national flags in Canberra, Australia in a file photo. Photo: AFP</figcaption></figure>
<p>Canto pop star Denise Ho, who has also been in Australia trying to whip up support for the protest movement, cautioned that the country should not let economic factors cloud its judgment on respect for human rights.</p>
<p>“We see this power of China, and how they violate many common values. This power goes into the global communities, it’s very intimidating. Whether it’s governments or corporations, they silence themselves.</p>
<p>“When you see governments from different countries reluctant to voice their concerns, ignoring common values. Are we willing to accept this power taking over the different aspects of our lives?” she asked.</p>
Elaborate plans to restore some normality vs a developing political vacuum on the ground
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/indias-end-game-in-kashmir-could-blow-up/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/indias-end-game-in-kashmir-could-blow-up/<p>More than a month after India <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/india-revokes-kashmirs-special-status/">ended the special status</a> for the state of Jammu and Kashmir, it is preparing to restore a high degree of normality by mid-October. This means that the curbs on people&#8217;s communication and movement in force since August 5 are likely to continue for another month, highly placed Indian government sources have told Asia Times.</p>
<p>&#8220;We believe that by mid- or end-October we will have snowfall in the mountain passes that link the state to Pakistan-administered Kashmir,&#8221; a senior official said. &#8220;Once the passes are closed, attempts by armed militants to infiltrate into the Indian side will diminish rapidly. That seems to be the ideal time to restore normalcy in the region.&#8221; Indian intelligence officials claim that nearly 230 armed militants from the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Hizbul Mujahideen are waiting to cross over into Indian Kashmir. Reports of the Lashkar threatening apple farmers from carrying out their business have also emerged.</p>
<p>On August 5, India removed Article 370, a Constitutional provision that gave the state of Jammu and Kashmir a high degree of autonomy. While the degree of autonomy had been progressively whittled down since it was first passed, it had remained a major talking point since an armed insurgency broke out in the state in 1990. The Bharatiya Janta Party, which has been in power since 2014, promised in its election manifesto to abrogate Article 370.</p>
<h4>Violence on temporary hold</h4>
<p>Officials in the federal government are aware that the abrogation will lead to considerable violence in the coming months. In anticipation the government airlifted nearly 30,000 additional federal police personnel to the state a week before the decision was announced. All forms of communication were cut off in the state after midnight on August 5, and restrictions placed on movement.</p>
<p>Government officials agree that there will be considerable unrest when communications are restored. &#8220;We have seen how they use WhatsApp to arrange protests. Once the internet and mobile phone communications are restored, we are likely to see a major outbreak of protests,&#8221; a security official said.</p>
<p>The federal government has cancelled the Moharram procession, an annual event among the Shias. The Shias are a minority in the state and are generally known to be pro-India. The majority of them live in the Kargil district, which is now part of the newly-constituted Ladakh union territory. Indian authorities say that the annual procession was canceled to avoid any protests in the region.</p>
<p>The major reference point for Indian security officials worried about the fallout in Kashmir is the killing of Kashmiri militant commander Burhan Wani three years ago. He was killed on July 8, 2016, and as news of his death spread, protests broke out across the Kashmir Valley.</p>
<p>Since then, on hid death anniversary each year a <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/shutdown-in-kashmir-on-third-death-anniversary-of-slain-hizb-militant-burhan-wani-1564252-2019-07-08"> communications shutdown is ordered</a> across the valley. Wani was a local who joined the Hizbul Mujahideen, a group that has traditionally been staffed by locals, unlike other armed militant groups that have drawn on Pakistanis. Wani was active on social media and was seen as a major hero to youngsters, who saw him as a symbol of Kashmir&#8217;s separatist aspirations. His killing by a Indian Army unit led to furious clashes between protestors and security forces.</p>
<p>At that time, the use of WhatsApp and mobile phones had allowed groups to coordinate large protests. Therefore, keeping all forms of communications closed was an imperative before India abrogated Article 370.</p>
<p>However, most of the senior officials in the state as well as federal officials posted there were unaware about the government&#8217;s intent to abrogate Article 370. Several senior officials who spoke to Asia Times confirmed that very few people were in the loop before the federal government announced the decision in Parliament. While everyone was told that a major decision was coming, most assumed that it would be the revocation of a sub-clause of Article 370 that prevents outsiders from buying land in the state.</p>
<p>India&#8217;s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, a former career intelligence officer with extensive experience in Kashmir, said that Pakistan&#8217;s reactions would determine how quickly India can restore normality in the state. “We would like all restrictions to go but it depends on how Pakistan behaves. It is a stimulant-and-response situation with the stimulant coming from Pakistan to create provocations, unrest – intimidate and threaten,” he said.</p>
<h4>Basic rights curtailed</h4>
<p>It&#8217;s highly unusual for a senior Indian government official to acknowledge, Pakistan&#8217;s moves on Kashmir as a factor to India. New Delhi has steadfastly maintained that Kashmir is an &#8220;internal issue&#8221; and therefore, it is free to take decisions as it sees fit.</p>
<p>The Narendra Modi-led federal government has been arguing that the abrogation of Article 370 will facilitate greater investments and quicker development in the state. However, this is a view that is increasingly being challenged based on the little evidence that has emerged from the state since the unprecedented lock down was imposed.</p>
<p>&#8220;The biggest worry for us is the erosion of the middle ground in Kashmir,&#8221; a veteran federal official who spent years in the state told Asia Times. &#8220;The government decided to detain all the prominent elected leaders since August 5 to prevent any uprising. Many of them were supportive of India&#8217;s policies in the state. They have now been put in an extremely difficult position.&#8221;</p>
<p>The state&#8217;s politics were dominated by two local political parties for decades. The National Conference, first led by Sheikh Abdullah, the state&#8217;s first prime minister under the special constitutional status, was the dominant party. The People&#8217;s Democratic Party (PDP) was formed much later. It managed to run a coalition government with the BJP for four years until the latter withdrew support. The federal government promptly placed the state under its direct rule.</p>
<p>Now leaders from both parties are under &#8220;preventive detention,&#8221; resulting in a major vacuum in the state&#8217;s politics. Worryingly, the government&#8217;s assessment is that the state&#8217;s political landscape is being replaced by banned groups that advocate a more fundamentalist version of Islam. &#8220;This is likely to increase radicalization among the youth and will lead to a major rise in violence,&#8221; a security official said.</p>
<p>The fact that the state has curtailed the internet for over a month has also caused irreparable harm to the local economy. &#8220;The internet is pretty much basic to most banking and financial transactions now,&#8221; that security official said. &#8220;The lack of the internet and mobile telephony has made it impossible to carry out large financial transactions. This has hurt the economy of the region quite a lot and will be a major deterrence to any investments in the state. We are likely to see tough days ahead as the local economy comes to a standstill.&#8221;</p>
<p>Journalists who have managed to report from the state say that the information clampdown is leading to reports of human rights abuses being suppressed. On September 9 reports of <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/day-of-hell-for-journalist-in-srinagar/cid/1703539">journalists being hurt</a> by pellet guns used by the police to control crowds emerged for the first time. While India has won <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/india-scores-a-diplomatic-win-on-kashmir/?_=7975005">considerable international support</a> for its move on Kashmir, this could be waning as the lockdown continues.</p>
<p>For India, the immediate endgame in Kashmir is to keep the protests and violence down. But the longer the lockdown remains, the harder it will become for authorities to suppress the coming uprising.</p>
In classic Pyongyang move, carrots and sticks follow in quick succession as troubled denuclearization talks back on table
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/nth-korea-asks-us-for-talks-then-tests-missiles/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/nth-korea-asks-us-for-talks-then-tests-missiles/<p>North Korea test-fired what were believed to be two intermediate range missiles into the Sea of Japan on Tuesday morning, only hours after asking for talks with the United States late on Monday.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20190910001052325?section=national/defense">According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff</a>, the missiles were fired from the vicinity of Pyongyang and splashed down after flying about 330 kilometers. It was the 10<span style="font-size: 14.1667px;">th</span> such test this year.</p>
<p>The mini-barrage came after First Vice-Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui’s announcement late Monday that Pyongyang sought to restart denuclearization talks with Washington in late September, and asked that Washington offer a new proposal acceptable to North Korea.</p>
<h4>Time for talks</h4>
<p>&#8220;I believe that the US side will come out with a proposal geared to the interests of [North Korea] and the US and based on the calculation method acceptable to us,&#8221; <a href="https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20190909010953325?section=national/diplomacy">Choe said,</a> according to state media.</p>
<p>However, if Washington sticks to “the worn-out scenario which has nothing to do with the new calculation method,” then “dealings may come to an end,” she added.</p>
<p>After a reshuffle in its negotiating team following the failure of previous officials to reach a breakthrough, Choe is Pyongyang’s lead working-level denuclearization negotiator.</p>
<p>North Korea-US talks have been in suspended animation since their bilateral leaders’ summit in Hanoi in February ended with no agreement.</p>
<p>North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump met briefly for a hastily arranged photo opportunity and talks in the DMZ in June, and agreed to follow up with working-level talks.</p>
<p>However, no discussions have taken place since then, despite repeated signals from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – an unpopular figure in Pyongyang – that Washington is good to go.</p>
<p>The reluctance of North Korea to return to talks may have been due to their anger at South Korea-US military drills. Summer drills, which this year were kept low key, ended last month.</p>
<h4>What does Kim want?</h4>
<p>The binary signals sent by Pyongyang late Monday and early Tuesday were classic North Korea – dangling a carrot while brandishing a stick.</p>
<p>“They want to show the Americans that if they are not taken seriously, or if the Americans are too demanding, they will be able to create a lot of trouble,” Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Seoul’s Kukmin University, told Asia Times.</p>
<p>While short-range missiles do not appear to concern Trump, who has brushed them off on the grounds that they are neither intercontinental missiles nor nuclear tests, they are a significant security issue for Washington ally Tokyo.</p>
<p>Seoul, keen to engage Pyongyang, was also threatened by recent tests of North Korean short range ballistic missiles and multiple launch rocket systems, but politically appears less disturbed.</p>
<p>In terms of North Korea’s near-term goals in talks, Lankov suggested an agreement signed by Trump, the only US leader who has directly engaged with North Korea.</p>
<p>“They want working level negotiations because they want a compromise, they understand that Donald Trump is a person who can sign an agreement which will implicitly accept that they are a nuclear state for the time being,” the expert said.</p>
<p>If talks do take place, both parties will be severely limited by their respective negotiating stances.</p>
<p>In recent months, North Korea has pivoted away from demands made last year for an end to the Korean War and for building relations between the two capitals. Instead, it has called for relief from UN Security Council sanctions.</p>
<p>However, Trump has been consistent that he will maintain sanctions pressure until North Korean denuclearizes – a commitment few experts believe Kim is willing to undertake, despite his statements to that effect.</p>
<p>Timing is another factor. Kim has said in public statements that he will give the current engagement process until the end of this year to deliver results. It is, however, unclear if he will stick to this statement. It is equally uncertain what his alternative strategy may be.</p>
MPs rejected Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s 2d bid to call an early election to solve the Brexit impasse
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<p>The pound bounced Tuesday after Prime Minister Boris Johnson again failed to get MPs to back a snap election.</p>
<p>Just before Westminster lawmakers broke up for five weeks they inflicted yet another defeat on the new premier, who has been thwarted in his attempts to call an early poll as he looks to win a majority in parliament and push through a no-deal Brexit.</p>
<p>MPs had earlier also voted to demand the government publish confidential documents about Britain&#8217;s readiness to leave the European Union on October 31 without a divorce deal.</p>
<p>The latest defeat on calling an election saw the pound – which had been slipping through Monday – rally more than one percent against the dollar from as low as $1.2234 to as much as $1.2385, its highest level since the end of July. Data showing the British economy faring better than expected also provided support to the sterling.</p>
<p>Johnson insists he will not ask for a delay to the October 31 Brexit date, despite MPs passing a bill that could force him to do so if he fails to reach an agreement with the EU.</p>
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<h4>&#8216;Would recover&#8217;</h4>
<p>London&#8217;s financial district would recover in the long run from a no-deal Brexit despite facing initial &#8220;shocks and disruptions&#8221;, the head of the City, Catherine McGuinness, said on Monday.</p>
<p>&#8220;I do think &#8230; a &#8216;no-deal&#8217; Brexit cliff-edge risk has the potential to cause shocks and disruptions but I think it is less serious than it was initially because of the preparation made,&#8221; she told a press briefing.</p>
<p>&#8220;We will find a way of muddling through because of planning but there will be disruptions,&#8221; said McGuinness, policy chair at the City of London Corporation, the local government authority for the capital&#8217;s powerful financial district.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am very confident about London&#8217;s future and the UK&#8217;s financial sector,&#8221; she added, pointing to strong growth for the capital&#8217;s &#8220;fintech&#8221; and &#8220;green&#8221; finance sectors.</p>
<p>And McGuinness noted that the &#8220;UK financial sector is possibly further advanced than other sectors because it started planning as soon as the referendum&#8221; in favor of leaving the EU in 2016.</p>
<p>Around 5,000 finance jobs could have been moved from the UK by the time the country departs the European Union, irrespective of whether a deal is struck, she said.</p>
<p>Banks that have announced plans to relocate jobs abroad include JP Morgan Chase, UBS and HSBC.</p>
<p>According to a recent survey by financial group EY, British financial services firms have disclosed £1.3 billion ($1.6 billion, 1.45 billion euros) in costs for relocations, legal advice, and contingency provisions.</p>
<p>In addition, they have put aside £2.6 billion for capital injections into new non-UK headquarters.</p>
<p>Now that MPs have rejected Johnson&#8217;s second bid to call an early election to solve the Brexit impasse, he is left in limbo heading towards a crucial EU summit next month, just days before Britain&#8217;s scheduled exit.</p>
<p>Here are some possible scenarios for the coming weeks:</p>
<h4>Brexit delay</h4>
<p>Britain will leave the European Union on October 31 unless it asks the bloc to delay, and the leaders of the other 27 member states agree.</p>
<p>Johnson wants to keep this date, but many MPs fear his threat to leave without agreeing divorce terms with Brussels would cause huge disruption.</p>
<p>In the past week, they have passed a law that would force Johnson to request a three-month delay to Brexit to January 31, 2020, with the option of further delays.</p>
<p>This would take effect if the prime minister has failed to get a divorce deal or somehow persuaded MPs to back a &#8220;no deal&#8221; exit by October 19.</p>
<h4>Brexit deal</h4>
<p>Johnson could still keep to the October 31 deadline if he manages to secure a deal with the EU that wins the approval of a majority of MPs – but it is a huge task.</p>
<p>His predecessor, Theresa May, reached an agreement with Brussels last year but MPs rejected it three times.</p>
<p>EU leaders have so far refused to reopen the text, and accuse Johnson&#8217;s government of failing to come up with any concrete alternative plans.</p>
<p>Johnson had hoped his threat to walk away without a deal would persuade them to renegotiate, and says MPs&#8217; actions have undermined his strategy.</p>
<p>However, he says he believes an agreement is still possible before a summit of EU leaders in Brussels on October 17-18, in time to leave on October 31.</p>
<h4>&#8216;No deal&#8217; Brexit</h4>
<p>Johnson has said he would rather be &#8220;dead in a ditch&#8221; than delay Brexit, more than three years after Britons voted in a referendum to leave the EU.</p>
<p>His government has indicated it will look for loopholes in the MPs&#8217; legislation in order to allow a &#8220;no deal&#8221; exit, although it insists it always upholds the law.</p>
<p>There is speculation Johnson could resign rather than ask for a delay, but someone – perhaps a civil servant, or an opposition politician – would have to make the request.</p>
<p>There is a chance EU leaders tire of Britain&#8217;s prevarication and refuse to delay Brexit, although the bloc is unwilling to take the blame for a disorderly divorce.</p>
<h4>Early election</h4>
<p>After expelling 21 of his Conservative MPs who rebelled over the Brexit law last week, Johnson no longer has a majority in the 650-seat House of Commons.</p>
<p>This leaves him in an impossible situation, unable to govern, and an election is seen as almost inevitable.</p>
<p>But the timing remains in question.</p>
<p>Johnson had wanted an election on October 15, hoping he would win enough seats in the Commons to force through his Brexit plan.</p>
<p>But the main opposition Labour party said it would only back an election once &#8220;no deal&#8221; was off the table.</p>
<p>Two-thirds of MPs must support an early election, but parliament is now suspended until October 14.</p>
<p>Talk is now turning to a November poll.</p>
<h4>No Brexit at all?</h4>
<p>If Johnson wins a subsequent election, or can forge a pact with the eurosceptic Brexit Party, he could still force through a &#8220;no deal&#8221; divorce in the months ahead.</p>
<p>If Labour wins, the party has promised to hold a new referendum, with an option to remain in the European Union – which could see Brexit cancelled.</p>
<p><em>AFP</em></p>
Family members of Hong Kong police pressure education bureau to set up a ‘teacher complaints council’
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/pro-beijing-group-wants-teachers-monitored/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/pro-beijing-group-wants-teachers-monitored/<p>A Hong Kong teachers&#8217; union has slammed a suggestion by the pro-establishment camp and family members of police officers, who want to form a “teacher complaints council” and to install cameras inside classrooms to monitor what teachers say.</p>
<p>These were some of the suggestions by police officers’ families and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Dr.ElizabethQuat/photos/pb.121783367955302.-2207520000.1568024039./1672258292907794/?type=3&amp;theater" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pro-Beijing lawmakers Starry Lee and Elizabeth Quat from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB)</a> during a meeting with three bureau chiefs – John Lee Ka-chiu from Security, Kevin Yeung Yun-hung from Education and Joshua Law from Civil Services – on Saturday.</p>
<p>During the meeting, family members of police handed a petition signed by law enforcers from 15 police and discipline services quarters to the government to reveal the pressure both police officers and their families faced over the now-withdrawn extradition bill saga, Wen Wei Po reported.</p>
<p>They suggested to the Education Bureau that the government form a “teacher complaints council” to monitor and investigate teachers to see if there was any spread of hatred against police during classes. The complaints would then be submitted to the Education Bureau who would dish out punishment.</p>
<p>They also suggested installing audio and visual systems to tape the teaching process for review.</p>
<p>Other suggestions in the education field included Chinese history being a compulsory subject and a review of the teaching content of the subject Liberal Studies.</p>
<p>Over the past three months, complaints were made to police about some teachers’ posts on social media, with claims they had spread hate speech against the police force and promoted the bullying of officers’ children.</p>
<p>The suggestions at the meeting drew heavy criticism, with some saying they were introducing white terror to the campus.</p>
<p>The Hong Kong Professional Teachers&#8217; Union issued a statement strongly condemning the reckless suggestions from the DAB, adding that they overrode the professionalism of the education sector and shifted the responsibility of the saga to schools and teachers, Ming Pao Daily reported.</p>
<p>The teachers&#8217; union emphasized that they had a mechanism to handle code of conducts issues and there was no need to set up a “teacher complaint council.”</p>
<p>Pro-Beijing teachers&#8217; union the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers also objected to the idea of such a council, saying they should not question the professionalism of teachers due to individual cases that had happened.</p>
<p>At the meeting, the police officers’ families also expressed their strong objection to setting up an independent commission of inquiry into the excessive use of force by police, and asked the government to enact legislation to prohibit acts of insulting civil servants as well as anti-mask legislation.</p>
<p>They also asked for more resources for police officers and their families, including an education allowance for local and overseas studies, medical insurance for existing and retired police officers and their families and a policy to grant public housing apartments to officers when they retired.</p>
<p>While police officers were worried about their children being bullied at school, it appears that many Hong Kong students have focused on showing their solidarity and unity with the protesters&#8217; five demands.</p>
<p>Secondary school students and alumni from almost 100 schools across the city joined hands and formed human chains between campuses on Monday morning before classes in support of the pro-democracy protests.</p>
<p>As early as 7am, long human chains gradually formed linking different schools in various districts. In Kowloon City, students from nine secondary schools in the area formed a long human chain.</p>
<p>They chanted the slogan “five key demands, not one less,” representing the five demands that the anti-extradition bill protesters have been calling for. The city&#8217;s chief has so far only fulfilled one – the withdrawal of the extradition bill.</p>
<p>The other four demands are setting up an independent commission of inquiry to probe the alleged brutality of the police force, an amnesty for arrested protesters, a halt to categorizing the protests as riots and the implementation of universal suffrage.</p>
<p>However, two people were injured in Kai Tai and Tai Kok Tsui districts after some people with opposite views attacked students with a cuter and threw objects at them from a height, the Apple Daily reported.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HOgqKxEXWEo?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
Executive councilor Fanny Law said she had a true case but could not share evidence to back her claims
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/govt-adviser-slammed-for-claim-girls-offer-sex-to-protesters/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/govt-adviser-slammed-for-claim-girls-offer-sex-to-protesters/<p>A top Hong Kong government adviser has been heavily criticized for spreading rumors after claiming she had confirmed a report of a girl offering free sex to frontline protesters.</p>
<p>Executive councilor Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fan claimed that she had confirmed “a true case” on <a href="https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1479601-20190909.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Radio Television Hong Kong’s program ‘Backchat’</a> on Monday after a listener’s email was read out by a program host. It alleged that some girls are being tasked with &#8220;providing comfort” to frontline protesters.</p>
<p>Law said: “I think we have confirmed that this is a true case. I am so sad for these young girls who have been misled into offering free sex.”</p>
<p>Some young girls were cajoled into believing that the protesters were &#8220;warriors,&#8221; she said.</p>
<p>However, Law, the former secretary for education and manpower and a former commissioner on the anti-graft watchdog, did not provide concrete evidence during the program.</p>
<p>Another guest on the program, chairman of League of Social Democrats Avery Ng countered Law, saying he thinks sex should be always free and out of love, adding that he did not think protesters had to risk injury from tear-gas or bullets to get sex.</p>
<p>A listener called into the program later, accusing Law of spreading rumors. But the councilor claimed she had evidence.</p>
<p>“That is the daughter of a friend’s friend. That’s second-hand knowledge but it’s direct. It’s real. Okay? Direct and it’s real. And the girl actually wrote a piece.”</p>
<h4>Schoolgirl&#8217;s &#8216;confession&#8217;?</h4>
<p>Recently, “a letter of confession” was posted on social media on some pro-establishment groups about a 14-year-old schoolgirl, who allegedly became pregnant after offering free sex to frontline protesters. The post went viral.</p>
<p>Another audio clip, circulated among WhatsApp groups by an anonymous woman, claimed that many girls aged 13 to 14 had been told they are &#8220;angels of the revolution&#8221; and should offer free sex to comfort &#8220;the warriors who fought outside days and nights.&#8221;</p>
<p>After the radio program, Ng said Law had sent him the “evidence” – the &#8220;letter of confession&#8221; and the audio clip which had been circulated on social media. Law said she received the “evidence” from a “cruise buddy”. Ng said she insisted the rumors were true.</p>
<p>Local media tried to reach Law for more information of the case but the councilor refused, citing privacy. She later replied through a secretary that she wanted to remind girls to stay alert and stay away from alcohol and marijuana in gatherings with &#8216;new&#8217; friends met at protest activities.</p>
<p>Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam said before the Executive Council meeting on Tuesday morning that these remarks only represented Law&#8217;s personal view.</p>
<p>Lam said government officials should remain extremely cautious about speculation and rumors as there was a lot of fake news in society. She said people should report to police if they have evidence of any criminal cases.</p>
<p>A spokesman from Caritas Hong Kong, which offers services to underage girls who get pregnant, said the group had not received any request for assistance from girls who got pregnant after sex with protesters over the past three months, RTHK reported.</p>
<h4>&#8216;Insulting&#8217;, irresponsible claim</h4>
<p>Law’s claims have been heavily criticized. Anti-government protesters described the claims as an insult to the intelligence of Hong Kong people, as she did not back her claims with evidence.</p>
<p>“This is another example of the state campaign against protesters and this shows the quality of the government,” a protester surnamed Chan said at the Citizens’ Press Conference on Monday night. They called on Law to report the matter to the police if she has proof.</p>
<p>Ng Wai-ching, founder of RainLily, an association that fights sexual violence against women, said when one person has sex with another person, regardless of their identity, they are having “free sex”, citing a married couple as an example, news website HK01.com reported.</p>
<p>Ng said it was unfortunate that Law spread such a rumor without providing evidence. She advised people to carefully analyze the information they receive.</p>
<p>Pan-democrats lawmakers slammed Law for making an irresponsible allegation, saying that a former senior official should not claim the rumor is true without giving evidence.</p>
<p>Claudia Mo Man-ching, convener of the pro-democracy camp, said Law made a serious allegation of a sexual offense – so she should convince the family to report to the police.</p>
<p>Helena Wong Pik-wan from the Democratic Party also urged Law to apologize to the public for spreading fake news and to take back her remarks if she cannot present evidence.</p>
<h4>City&#8217;s biggest challenge: Li</h4>
<p>Meanwhile, Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing had called on political leaders to give the next generation a chance while young people should look at the big picture.</p>
<p>A video had surfaced online on Monday showing Li speaking to a small crowd during a Buddhist gathering at Tsz Shan Monastery in Tai Po in the New Territories on Sunday. The gathering was said to be a prayer for Hong Kong.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378477" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-378477" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Li-Ka-shing-Tsz-Shan-.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Li-Ka-shing-Tsz-Shan-.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Li-Ka-shing-Tsz-Shan--768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Li-Ka-shing-Tsz-Shan--1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Li-Ka-shing-Tsz-Shan--300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Li-Ka-shing-Tsz-Shan--600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Li speaks to a small crowd during a visit to a monastery in Tai Po. Photo: RTHK</figcaption></figure>
<p>The 91-year-old Li, said to be the city&#8217;s richest resident, said Hong Kong was facing its biggest challenge since World World II. He said if unrest continues, the result will not be good.</p>
<p>“We hope the young people can take the big picture into consideration,” Li said, “and those in power can have mercy to the masters of our future.”</p>
<p>He also said he hoped the two sides could be more considerate towards each other.</p>
<p>It was the first time Li has spoken publicly on the unrest. Last month, he paid for full-page advertisements in several local newspapers calling for an end to violence.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YHu3IrgKaxs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
New jet fighters will cost under $122 million a plane, cheapest deal by the US since 2009
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/taiwan-secures-bargain-price-for-f-16vs/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/taiwan-secures-bargain-price-for-f-16vs/<p>Taiwan has officially appropriated NT$250 billion (US$8 billion) for buying 66 F-16V fighter jets from the US, and the money to pay for the single largest arms sale in years from its unofficial ally will come from surplus revenue from previous fiscal years plus government loans, the island&#8217;s defense ministry has said.</p>
<p>Taiwan&#8217;s Premier Su Tseng-chang last week signed off on a bill to budget NT$250 billion for the landmark purchase from Lockheed Martin to boost air defense when China is closing in on the self-ruled island of 23.6 million.</p>
<p>The US Department of State last month approved an arms package to Taiwan including the squadron of F-16 jets in their latest V configuration, plus software patches, spare parts and ancillary systems.</p>
<p>But the sale has to clear the US Congress before the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency officially gazettes it. The process will be completed once the US and Taiwan sign a Letter of Offer and Acceptance.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Taiwan&#8217;s defense ministry and top guns involved in marathon negotiations with the US military and defense contractors have been swift in shooting down claims that the F-16s Taiwan will receive have &#8220;downgraded specs.&#8221;</p>
<p>Instead, the ministry has stressed that Taiwan&#8217;s years-long efforts have secured a &#8220;bargain price&#8221; for the new F-16Vs, putting the cost of a single aircraft at about $121.7 million, the cheapest F-16Vs the US has sold since 2009.</p>
<p>The price that Taiwan has negotiated is said to be less than the average price agreed by Bahrain, Slovakia, Morocco and Bulgaria, who paid about $149 million per jet.</p>
<h4>China fly-bys intensify</h4>
<p>Liberty Times last week quoted a military source as saying that Taiwan would likely sign the Letter of Offer before the end of 2019 and send it to Washington to finalize the deal. It would take delivery of all 66 jets, in separate batches, no later than 2026.</p>
<p>It is also revealed that the Taiwanese Air Force has sent representatives to lobby the island&#8217;s lawmakers to approve the deal when the summer recess ends this month to make sure there are no glitches in the process, even though support for the purchase and its budget cuts across party lines.</p>
<p>The People’s Liberation Army has intensified its fly-bys near Taiwanese airspace, despite an incident in March when two Chinese warplanes strayed across the Taiwan Strait median line, tacitly agreed by Beijing and Taipei as the boundary between the two sides.</p>
<p>The PLA&#8217;s East Theater Command just wrapped up a large sea-air drill north of Taiwan in the East China Sea earlier this month.</p>
<p><strong>Read more:</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/taiwans-new-f-16s-boost-regional-role-of-us/">Taiwan’s new F-16s boost regional role of US</a></p>
<p><a href="https://cms.ati.ms/2019/08/taiwans-new-f-16s-to-be-based-on-pacific-coast/">Taiwan&#8217;s new F-16s to be based on Pacific coast</a></p>
<p><a href="https://cms.ati.ms/2019/09/after-f-16-sale-us-navy-ship-stops-in-taiwan/">After F-16 sale, US Navy ship stops in Taiwan</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/08/article/taiwan-us-discuss-new-f-16-training-base/?_=9798534">Taiwan, US discuss new F-16 training base</a></p>
Don Junior models the ‘new camo’ for the organization’s department of shameless commerce
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/trump-org-launches-camouflage-merchandise-line/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/trump-org-launches-camouflage-merchandise-line/<p>On the same day President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/trump-says-hes-ramping-up-war-with-taliban/">announced</a> that he was ramping up the war against the Afghan Taliban, his Trump Organization plugged the arrival of its camouflage collection.</p>
<p>The timing was exquisite, in more ways than one. &#8220;New season, new camo,&#8221; the organization tweeted, noting it was &#8220;just in time for fall.&#8221;</p>
<p>The tweet included a sweaty selfie of Donald Trump Jr. sporting some of the new gear, which includes T-shirts, sweatpants, and embroidered wallets and hip flasks.</p>
<p>Some Twitter users poked fun at the choice to use Don Jr. as the main model, a decision seemingly at odds with the president&#8217;s bragging about his personal wealth.</p>
<p>&#8220;Can&#8217;t even spring for a proper model,&#8221; wrote one user.</p>
<p>&#8220;Because when I think roughin&#8217; it in the woods, hunting, living off the land, doing rural everyday joe stuff, I think of this guy,&#8221; another person tweeted, adding a photo of President Trump in his gilded New York penthouse apartment.</p>
<p>Other people on Twitter found the choice of camouflage ironic, since the president has been criticized for receiving five deferments from the Vietnam War draft – including once reportedly for bone spurs.</p>
<p>&#8220;Good enough to hide you from the Draft Board,&#8221; one person tweeted.</p>
<p>&#8220;Can the entire Trump family wear it so we never have to see them again?&#8221; another replied.</p>
<p>There was no immediate comment from the Pentagon on whether the 14,000 American troops in Afghanistan would be outfitted in Trump-branded camo.</p>
<p><em>Reporting by AFP</em></p>
Strategic partners have various shared interests and concerns, spelled China, but are still far apart on values and rights
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/why-australia-and-vietnam-cant-quite-get-together/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/why-australia-and-vietnam-cant-quite-get-together/<p>Just weeks after Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison made his first official visit to Hanoi, a diplomatic occasion for boosting trade and security ties, Vietnamese authorities moved to charge Australian citizen Van Kham Chau with terrorism.</p>
<p>Ahead of Morrison’s high profile visit and before the two sides held a 16th human rights dialogue in Canberra, rights lobby group Human Rights Watch urged Australia to raise the case of Chau, who has been detained in Vietnam since January on anti-state charges.</p>
<p>Unlike the United States (US) and European Union (EU), both of which regularly and openly condemn Hanoi’s harsh treatment of activists, Australia takes a more closed door approach. Morrison did not bring up Kham’s predicament, at least not in public, during his visit.</p>
<p>Professor Carlyle Thayer at the Australian Defense Force Academy suggests Morrison’s high-level visit overshadowed the Australian citizen’s detainment, given it was the first bilateral visit for an Australian leader to Vietnam since 1994. (Successive prime ministers have attended multilateral events hosted by Vietnam).</p>
<p class="yiv4302197033MsoNormal">“Australia&#8217;s relations with Vietnam are going quite well with the agreement last year to raise relations to a strategic partnership,&#8221; said Thayer. &#8220;Vietnam&#8217;s arrest and detention of Chau cannot be viewed as politically motivated against the Australian government.&#8221;</p>
<p>Australia and Vietnam are increasingly close as middle power supporters of a US-backed “rules-based-order” in the region. Morrison’s visit aimed to shore up ties and transition from friends to “mates” after last year’s upgrade of relations from a comprehensive to strategic partnership.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378249" style="width: 1593px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-378249" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Australia-Vietnam-Navy-Cam-Ranh-Bay-2019-e1568023050247.jpg" alt="" width="1593" height="1123" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Australia-Vietnam-Navy-Cam-Ranh-Bay-2019-e1568023050247.jpg 1593w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Australia-Vietnam-Navy-Cam-Ranh-Bay-2019-e1568023050247-768x541.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Australia-Vietnam-Navy-Cam-Ranh-Bay-2019-e1568023050247-1568x1105.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1593px) 100vw, 1593px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Australian Joint Task Force 661 Air Commodore Richard Owen is greeted by Vietnamese People’s Army members on arrival of the HMAS Canberra at Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, during Indo-Pacific Endeavor 2019. Photo: Kylie Gibson/ Australian Department of Defense</figcaption></figure>
<p>Australia increasingly sees Vietnam as a security partner in the region, including in maintaining freedom of navigation vis-à-vis China in the South China Sea.</p>
<p>Before leaving for Hanoi, Morrison said his aim was to “extend, strengthen and further build the alliances, the relationships that exist across the Indo-Pacific of free independent sovereign nations simply seeking to be themselves in this part of the world.”</p>
<p>Still, Morrison didn’t mention China by name when he referred to regional countries who face “coercion” in sea areas. “If we allow the sovereignty or independence of any of our neighbors to suffer coercion then we are all diminished,” he said. “We share a deep interest in the stability and prosperity of our region.”</p>
<p>Australia and Vietnam have a long history of defense cooperation, with Vietnamese officers training at Duntroon since the 1990s and Australia providing assistance to Vietnamese peacekeeping forces on United Nations missions. The upgrade in ties last year promised even more military cooperation, including through multilateral joint exercises.</p>
<p>That includes the Australia-led Indo-Pacific Endeavour exercises, now in their third year, which see Australia&#8217;s military cooperate with armed forces in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam. This year Australia’s three arms of defense ­– navy, air force, and army – cruised across the region for three months on a fleet of Australian naval ships for various joint activities.</p>
<p>There has been talk since last year that Vietnam, a communist-run one-party state, could also soon join the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, also known as the Quad, between the US, India, Japan and Australia &#8211; all like-minded democracies.</p>
<p>That Vietnam’s different political system and its total aversion to becoming a multi-party democracy is not a real hurdle to it joining the Quad is a sign that real politick considerations are taking precedence in building a coalition in defense of a “rules-based-order.”</p>
<figure id="attachment_355308" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-355308" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/South-China-Sea-Navy-US-2018-e1560940581492.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="904" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/South-China-Sea-Navy-US-2018-e1560940581492.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/South-China-Sea-Navy-US-2018-e1560940581492-768x434.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/South-China-Sea-Navy-US-2018-e1560940581492-1568x886.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A US-led joint naval operation in the South China Sea in November 2018. Photo: US Navy</figcaption></figure>
<p>Vietnam, on the other hand, needs all of the security allies it can muster as China increasingly challenges areas it claims in the South China Sea.</p>
<p>While not overtly in defense of Vietnam’s positions, France and the United Kingdom recently staged “freedom of navigation” patrols through the South China Sea as a challenge to China’s increasing encroachment into the area. Australia has not yet committed to such an exercise, which would no doubt be welcomed in Hanoi.</p>
<p>China is meanwhile pressing forward vis-à-vis Vietnam in the contested maritime area. In July, China moved an oil exploration rig into Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone, which Beijing maintains falls within its nine-dash line map despite The Hague ruling otherwise in July 2016.</p>
<p>Two months later, The Haiyang Dizhi 8 is still there in a block being explored at Vietnam’s invitation by Russia’s Rosneft at the gas-rich Vanguard Bank. The stand-off has seen Chinese militia ships go head-to-head with Vietnam’s coast guard, with neither side budging.</p>
<p>It marks the second time China has bid to thwart Vietnam’s energy ambitions in contested waters, the first causing Spain’s Repsol to abandon two blocks Hanoi had given it concessions to explore.</p>
<p>Australia has no commercial interest in Vietnam’s energy sector, nor is it apparent that there are any Australian oil companies interested in partnering with state-run PetroVietnam to explore in Hanoi’s claimed waters. That’s particularly true after Australia’s second largest oil company, Santos, spun off its Southeast Asian assets last year in a cost-cutting move.</p>
<figure id="attachment_367109" style="width: 1498px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-367109" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Vietnam-South-China-Sea-Soldier-Flag.jpg" alt="" width="1498" height="994" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Vietnam-South-China-Sea-Soldier-Flag.jpg 1498w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Vietnam-South-China-Sea-Soldier-Flag-768x510.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1498px) 100vw, 1498px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A Vietnamese soldier stands watch overlooking the South China Sea. Photo: Facebook</figcaption></figure>
<p>But China’s push into the region, including a drive to goad rival claimant nations to partner only with Chinese state companies in developing the sea’s resources, will concern Australia as Beijing comes to dominate a waterway through which much of its trade travels.</p>
<p>Morrison was careful to manage Australia’s fractious relationship with China by not mentioning it by name while in Vietnam. That may have disappointed his Vietnamese hosts, some analysts suggest.</p>
<p>“Vietnam hoped for stronger language from Australia during Morrison’s visit,” the Australian Strategic Policy’s Institute’s Huong Le Thu wrote, noting in comparison the language of the recent Australia–Japan–US strategic dialogue signed by Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne was more forceful.</p>
<p>“It was a deliberate effort (by Morrison) not to name China, which seems odd given both the timing of the trip and Australia’s vocal defense of the rules-based order,” she wrote.</p>
<p>Canberra’s refusal to go head-to-head with China is a reflection of the fact that China remains its largest trade partner. Both Australia and Vietnam have grown closer to China through trade but a recent shift in geo-strategic winds has put a brake on those deepening ties.</p>
<p>Vietnam now faces not only Chinese interference and threats in its nearby waters but has also watched as Beijing co-opts its “traditional friends” in neighboring Cambodia and Laos through rich aid and development schemes.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378237" style="width: 1351px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-378237" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Vietnam-Australia-Scott-Morrison-Nguyen-Phuc-August-23-2019-e1568021449850.jpg" alt="" width="1351" height="920" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Vietnam-Australia-Scott-Morrison-Nguyen-Phuc-August-23-2019-e1568021449850.jpg 1351w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Vietnam-Australia-Scott-Morrison-Nguyen-Phuc-August-23-2019-e1568021449850-768x523.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1351px) 100vw, 1351px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Hanoi, August 23, 2019</figcaption></figure>
<p>Recent reports that China has secured a 30-year exclusive lease to Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base opening on the Gulf of Thailand will have sent alarm bells ringing in Hanoi as well as Canberra as Beijing opens a strategic southern flank in the South China Sea disputes.</p>
<p>Australia, too, is losing out to Chinese largesse in its traditional Pacific sphere of influence. That includes in close-to-home Timor Leste, where China may build a liquified natural gas (LNG) plant to kick-start the tiny new nation’s export industries.</p>
<p>Morrison’s hesitance to name China during his visit to Vietnam made certain real politick sense. But at a time when Vietnam’s “more friends, fewer enemies” diplomacy is in hyperdrive, many felt Australia’s leader could have delivered a stronger message, including in a public call for Chau’s freedom.</p>
Exacerbated bond market volatility in August
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/trump-tweets-increasingly-moving-markets-report/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/trump-tweets-increasingly-moving-markets-report/<p>Donald Trump has been tweeting more than ever in recent months and is also moving financial markets more, according to a new report by JPMorgan Chase that analyzed the US president&#8217;s Twitter habit.</p>
<p>The report unveiled a new &#8220;Volfefe&#8221; index that measures volatility after presidential tweets and said Trump&#8217;s market-moving missives on trade and monetary policy surged in August, exacerbating volatility in the bond market.</p>
<p>Analysts studied movements in the 10-year US Treasury market at a variety of intervals, including one minute, five minutes and one hour.</p>
<p>&#8220;By this metric, &#8216;market-moving tweets&#8217; have ballooned in frequency this August,&#8221; the report said. &#8220;Importantly a few episodes have been associated with a sharp rise in implied volatility.&#8221;</p>
<p>The name of the index is a riff on a Tweet from May 2017 that mentioned &#8220;covfefe,&#8221; which is not a word. Trump has sometimes been called the &#8220;Tweeter in Chief.&#8221;</p>
<p>Market-moving tweets tend to receive fewer &#8220;likes&#8221; and retweets than Trump&#8217;s other tweets, the report said. Top market-moving words include &#8220;China,&#8221; &#8220;billion&#8221; and &#8220;products,&#8221; followed by &#8220;dollars,&#8221; &#8220;tariff,&#8221; and &#8220;trade.&#8221;</p>
<p>The report did not analyze individual tweets during August, which was also a rocky period for the stock market due to the escalating US-China trade war and an inversion of the US Treasury yield-curve, often a harbinger of recession.</p>
<p>August Trump tweets included the shock announcement on August 1 that the US would impose new tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese goods, as well as a series of escalating attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.</p>
<p>Trump blamed the Fed chief for the inverted yield curve on August 14 and questioning whether Powell was a &#8220;bigger enemy&#8221; than Chinese leader Xi Jinping on August 23.</p>
<p>The JPMorgan report observed that Trump has maintained &#8220;a remarkably consistent daily presence&#8221; on Twitter since taking office, averaging more than 10 tweets a day.</p>
<p>&#8220;The highest volume of tweets over the past four years has in fact come in recent months,&#8221; the report said.</p>
<p>However, the faster pace of tweets is partly accounted for by retweets of messages sent by others, according to the report.</p>
<p><em>AFP</em></p>
Chinese scientists are leading a wave of controversial genetic experimentation
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/china-leading-global-split-in-human-animal-hybrids/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/china-leading-global-split-in-human-animal-hybrids/<p>If you want to conduct groundbreaking but contentious biological research, go to China. Last year, Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced he had created the world’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-scientist-says-he-made-a-gene-edited-baby-and-what-health-worries-may-ensue-107764">first gene-edited human babies</a>, shocking the world at a time when such practice is illegal in most leading scientific nations.</p>
<p>More recently, US-based researcher Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte revealed he had produced the world’s <a href="https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/07/31/inenglish/1564561365_256842.html">first human-monkey hybrid</a> embryo in China to avoid legal issues in his adopted country.</p>
<p>Yet if China is fast becoming the world capital of controversial science, it is not alone in producing it. More babies produced using the “CRISPR” gene-editing technology <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01770-x">are now planned</a> by a scientist in Russia, where another researcher is also hoping to conduct the world’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-problem-with-human-head-transplants-53522">first human head transplant</a>. And Japan has <a href="https://theconversation.com/human-animal-hybrids-are-coming-and-could-be-used-to-grow-organs-for-transplant-a-philosopher-weighs-in-121228">recently lifted</a> its own ban on human-animal hybrids.</p>
<p>The world is rapidly moving towards a two-tier system of cutting-edge medical research, broadly divided between countries with minimal regulation and those that refuse to allow anything but the earliest stages of this work. The consequences of this split are likely to be significant, even potentially affecting your own access to healthcare.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<p><figure style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290743/original/file-20190903-175700-15ol419.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290743/original/file-20190903-175700-15ol419.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=338&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290743/original/file-20190903-175700-15ol419.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=338&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290743/original/file-20190903-175700-15ol419.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=338&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290743/original/file-20190903-175700-15ol419.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=424&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290743/original/file-20190903-175700-15ol419.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=424&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290743/original/file-20190903-175700-15ol419.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=424&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="" width="600" height="337" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Chinese scientist He Jiankui said he created the world’s first gene-edited human babies in 2018. Photo: The He Lab/Wikipedia, CC BY-SA</figcaption></figure><figcaption></figcaption></figure>
<p>The births of the CRISPR babies in China <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00673-1">led to an uproar</a> among the scientific community, which <a href="https://theconversation.com/worlds-first-gene-edited-babies-premature-dangerous-and-irresponsible-107642">criticized He Jiankui</a>, and inspired <a href="https://theconversation.com/experts-call-for-halt-to-crispr-editing-that-allows-gene-changes-to-pass-on-to-children-113463">calls for a halt</a> in any CRISPR research on human embryos. <a href="https://rbej.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1477-7827-12-108">In around 30 countries</a>, gene editing of human embryos is already banned outright or at least tightly controlled. For example, in the UK only a handful of research groups have been <a href="https://www.crick.ac.uk/research/labs/kathy-niakan/human-embryo-genome-editing-licence">granted a license</a> to conduct experiments, and certainly not with any aim of bringing an embryo to term.</p>
<p>But in most countries, things are <a href="https://socialandlegalstudies.wordpress.com/2019/07/12/whats-law-got-to-do-with-human-germline-editing/">less clear</a>. The Chinese establishment was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/nov/29/work-on-gene-edited-babies-blatant-violation-of-the-law-says-china">quick to condemn</a> He’s work and declare it illegal. And some commentators have <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/11/china-crispr-babies/576784/">made the point</a> that, despite outside perceptions, Chinese science is far from unregulated. Yet the fact remains that He was able to conduct the work unimpeded, with evidence suggesting he may have even received <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/26/18241382/crispr-babies-chinese-government-he-jiankui-bioethics-science-health">state funding</a>.</p>
<p>With a technology moving as <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/crispr-15704">quickly as CRISPR</a>, many nations will not have had the time nor expertise to develop a comprehensive stance. As a result, it seems likely that we won’t be able to avoid a two-tier system for this kind of research. Nations with developed regulation for biotechnology will be able to adapt more quickly and easily to the latest advances and put restrictions in place. Other states will scramble to keep up, leaving scientists to proceed without having to consider the ethical or social implications of their work. And that’s assuming all governments want to restrict this kind of research, which they may not.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<p><figure style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290685/original/file-20190903-175682-jomjl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290685/original/file-20190903-175682-jomjl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=338&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290685/original/file-20190903-175682-jomjl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=338&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290685/original/file-20190903-175682-jomjl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=338&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290685/original/file-20190903-175682-jomjl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=424&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290685/original/file-20190903-175682-jomjl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=424&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290685/original/file-20190903-175682-jomjl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=424&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="" width="600" height="337" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Not all countries may want to restrict gene editing. Photo: Sergey Nevens/Shutterstock</figcaption></figure><figcaption></figcaption></figure>
<p>We have seen what happens when there is this kind of international disconnect with other biotechnologies. “Medical tourism” has become a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2018.06.022">boom sector</a> within the healthcare industry. People travel from all over the world to private clinics that provide – or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/23/health/a-cautionary-tale-of-stem-cell-tourism.html">claim to provide</a> – stem cell therapies unavailable in their home countries. There have been high-profile cases of people traveling from the <a href="https://ipscell.com/2016/09/mitochondrial-replacement-techniques-mexican-case/">US to Mexico</a> in order to skirt national laws and access mitochondrial replacement therapy, which is used to prevent or ameliorate disease.</p>
<p>So it’s safe to assume that those with the means to do so might try to access gene editing abroad when it’s not available in their own countries, perhaps to avoid passing on a known heritable condition they carry. And with home DNA-testing kits becoming widespread (<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-accurate-are-online-dna-tests/">although not necessarily accurate</a>), the number of people wanting to edit their genome before having children is likely to increase.</p>
<p>A lack of or loose medical regulations also tends to produce predatory clinics that <a href="https://www.imtj.com/blog/stem-cell-therapies-show-medical-tourisms-darker-side/">charge huge amounts</a> for what sounds like wonder cures but might be, at best, a sugar pill or, at worst, <a href="https://stemcellsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/sctm.17-0282">something actively harmful</a>. And, perhaps worst of all, regulatory problems might contribute to destroying the reputation of promising developing medical technologies. The more nasty incidents that are attributed to an unregulated therapy, the less and less willing people will be to support legitimate medical trials.</p>
<p>This kind of two-tier system of medical regulation could also lead techniques such as gene-editing to become much more culturally accepted in some countries than others. Our society continues to struggle with xenophobia and racism, so we may also find prejudices and legal dilemmas developing for genetically engineered humans (never mind human-animal hybrids).</p>
<p>Would people born using technologies such as CRISPR be allowed to visit or emigrate to countries where their very creation was illegal? Would it be illegal for them to have their own children and spread their genetically altered genome? This kind of conflict between international human rights legislation and domestic policy is yet to be tested but could have grave consequences.</p>
<h4>Worsening inequality</h4>
<p>On the other side of the divide, if countries with strong regulations move too slowly to allow treatments that may be lifesaving or disability preventing, it could worsen health inequality. We already have serious global problems with <a href="http://www.jpe.ox.ac.uk/papers/biotechnology-justice-and-health/">distributive justice</a>, the ways in which services or technologies are only accessible to the privileged. If a particular illness could be prevented through CRISPR, is it right that someone should have to risk their child developing the disease just because they cannot afford to travel to a country where the technique is legal?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the obvious solution – internationally agreed standards and regulations – may be a pipedream. We have consistently failed to find <a href="https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199680832.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199680832-e-58">global consensus</a> on gene editing issues, just as with embryo research. Even if it is possible to reach common ground, developing and implementing mutually acceptable terms that are flexible enough to handle the inevitable further technological progress, will take many years. For now, proposals for <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-03270-w">concerted effort to keep track</a> of gene editing research may be the best we can do.</p>
<p>It’s difficult to predict what could happen in the meantime. But it seems likely that more and more gene editing and other controversial practices will take place in a variety of regulated and unregulated circumstances. Sadly, it may be the case that little progress is made until the types of problems outlined above become all too real.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121473/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: http://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/david-lawrence-798037">David Lawrence</a>, Postdoctoral Fellow, Newcastle Law School, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/newcastle-university-906">Newcastle University</a></em></p>
<p>This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/genetic-engineering-and-human-animal-hybrids-how-china-is-leading-a-global-split-in-controversial-research-121473">original article</a>.</p>
World Civilization Research Association member Zhu Xuanshi further claimed that Western civilization is a ‘sub-civilization’ of Chinese culture
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/is-english-actually-chinese-some-scholars-think-so/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/is-english-actually-chinese-some-scholars-think-so/<p>“World Civilization Research Association” scholars are claiming that Western civilization originates from China and all European languages are merely Mandarin dialects, Taiwan News reported.</p>
<p>World Civilization Research Association vice-president and secretary-general Zhai Guiyun said during an interview with Sina Online that some English words derive from Mandarin.</p>
<p>For example, “yellow” resembles Mandarin for “leaf falling” because it is the color of autumn, while “heart” resembles “core.&#8221;</p>
<p>Zhai concluded this “proves” English is, in fact, a “dialect” of Mandarin, the report said.</p>
<p>He further claimed that after Chinese formed the English language, Russian, French, German, and other European-based languages, went through a similar process of sinicization.</p>
<p>The World Civilization Research Association group of scholars are professors from a number of Chinese academic institutions.</p>
<p>Association member Zhu Xuanshi further claimed that Western civilization is a “sub-civilization” of Chinese culture, the report said.</p>
<p>He said Europeans “felt ashamed” due to the “fact” there was no history in Europe before the 15th century, compared to China.</p>
<p>In an attempt to paper over this historical humiliation, the Europeans “fabricated” stories about ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman civilizations — all based on Chinese history.</p>
<p>World Civilization Research Association founder Du Gangjian said the organization has set up branches in the US, Canada, UK, Thailand, South Korea, and Madagascar to “restore” the truth of world history.</p>
<p>“Do not let fake, Western-centered history hinder the great Sino-Renaissance,” he was quoted as saying.</p>
<p>Many Chinese citizens remain unconvinced, however, with some mocking the association members by calling them “Wolf Warrior Scholars” – which references a patriotic Chinese movie.</p>
<p>“Thanks, we can no longer laugh at the Koreans who claimed Confucius and Genghis Khan are Korean,” one commenter sardonically lamented.</p>
Internet-based services firm will use the mapping service as a tool in ramping up efforts in self-driving deliveries
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/meituan-going-high-tech-to-trim-rising-delivery-costs/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/meituan-going-high-tech-to-trim-rising-delivery-costs/<p>Meituan, China&#8217;s fourth-largest internet-based services firm in terms of market capitalization, is betting on high-definition maps to reduce reliance on deliverymen and drive unmanned services to further bolster its vast business, China Daily reported.</p>
<p>A group buying and dining platform with 320 million active users and more than 4 million merchants, Meituan offers a range of services spanning from online food delivery to ride-hailing.</p>
<p>A former Meituan employee who sought anonymity said it has been several years since the firm started to develop mapping services.</p>
<p>Hong Kong-listed Meituan confirmed it has been working on mapping services. &#8220;We set up a location-based services, or LBS, team in October last year following corporate restructuring. The unit includes mapping services, ride-hailing and traffic data management,&#8221; it said in a statement to China Daily.</p>
<p>Another source said the LBS unit hired Zhang Shaowen as tech leader. Zhang was earlier serving as vice-president of used car platform Renrenche. Before that, he was general manager and chief web architect of intelligent navigation at Baidu Map.</p>
<p>&#8220;Meituan will use the mapping service as a tool in ramping up efforts in self-driving deliveries,&#8221; he said, adding the team comprises several dozens of specialists.</p>
<p>Meituan already started trial operations of deliveries using autonomous or driverless vehicles. It said it will start large-scale operations of its driverless delivery vehicles this year.</p>
<p>Industry insiders attributed the accelerated efforts in mapping and unmanned delivery to mounting costs of deliverymen, the report said.</p>
<p>Meituan&#8217;s financial report for the first quarter of this year showed that online food delivery still accounted for over half of the company&#8217;s total revenue. Yet, the cost increased 40.5% year-on-year, mainly driven by the cost of deliverymen as orders rose.</p>
<p>The cost of online food delivery grew 238% to 19.3 billion yuan (US$2.7 billion) in 2017 while the cost of deliverymen jumped three times from 5.1 billion yuan to 18.3 billion yuan, its prospectus showed.</p>
<p>&#8220;To drive unmanned delivery, mapping is a must. The company didn&#8217;t choose to cooperate with mapping service providers because common mapping technologies cannot meet the demand of Meituan&#8217;s food delivery,&#8221; said Qie Jianjun, former vice-president of AutoNavi.</p>
<p>In addition to unmanned deliveries at shopping malls, office blocks and university campuses, Meituan&#8217;s delivery cars will also be able to travel up and down building elevators.</p>
AIrline joins elite group of global air cargo operators flying the new 777 Freighters with market leading capabilities and economics
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/china-airlines-adds-freighter-muscle-with-six-boeing-777s/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/china-airlines-adds-freighter-muscle-with-six-boeing-777s/<p>China Airlines is modernizing its cargo fleet with the procurement of six 777 Freighters from Boeing in a deal valued at US$2.1 billion, Aerospace Technology reported.</p>
<p>With this move, the carrier has plans to switch to the largest and longest-range twin-engine freighters. The company is launching operations from Taipei to North America. It is currently operating 747 Freighter fleets.</p>
<p>The airline operator had already revealed its interest to acquire up to six 777 Freighters at the Paris Air Show in June, the report said.</p>
<p>Boeing commercial sales and marketing senior vice-president Ihssane Mounir said: “As China Airlines celebrates more than half a century of success; Boeing is honoured to continue playing an integral role in its growth and expansion.</p>
<p>“With this order, China Airlines will join an elite group of global air cargo operators operating the new 777 Freighters.</p>
<p>“With the global air freight market forecasted to double over the next 20 years, the 777 Freighter’s market-leading capabilities and economics will help China Airlines extend their network and grow their future cargo business.”</p>
<p>The 777 Freighter is capable of conducting trans-Pacific long-range missions at a range of 6,000nm and can carry 20% extra payload than the 747-400F, the report said.</p>
<p>It can also accommodate 27 2.5m x 3m standard pallets on the main deck.</p>
<p>China Airlines chairman Hsieh Su-Chien said: “Air cargo is an important part of our overall business and the introduction of these new 777 Freighters will play an integral role in our long-term growth strategy.</p>
<p>“As we transition our freighter fleet to the 777Fs, this will enable us to deliver world-class services to our customers more efficiently and reliably.”</p>
<p>According to Aerotech News, the addition of 777 Freighters will enable the carrier to streamline maintenance and parts for its 777 fleet.</p>
<p>The carrier uses a number of Boeing Global Services solutions to support its Boeing fleet operations, including Airplane Health Maintenance and Maintenance Performance Toolbox.</p>
<p>These data-driven platforms track real-time airplane information, providing maintenance data and decision support tools that allow technicians to quickly and correctly resolve issues.</p>
<p>On the ground and in the air, China Airline’s entire fleet uses Jeppesen FliteDeck Pro and access to digital navigation charts to optimize performance and enhance situational awareness.</p>
<p>The company operates 51 Boeing aeroplanes, which includes ten 777-300ERs, 19 next-generation 737s, four 747-400s and 18 747 Freighters.</p>
The undue haste, limited scope and unclear lines of a deal Trump wants signed next week inspire no confidence
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hype-hovers-over-japan-us-trade-deal/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hype-hovers-over-japan-us-trade-deal/<p>The most fascinating thing about Donald Trump’s free-trade-agreement talks with Shinzo Abe is how the latter is adopting the former’s leadership idiosyncrasies.</p>
<p>The Japanese prime minister’s first Trumpian turn was pulling a trade-control move on South Korea. His action, that placed controls on <a href="https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/japan-oks-first-export-s-korea-under-new-trade-curbs" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/japan-oks-first-export-s-korea-under-new-trade-curbs&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1568103474353000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEjmuX9zkrNGHL5PULItGQTMlFuHg">Korea Inc’s access</a> to materials vital to making semiconductors, was right out of the US president’s playbook.</p>
<p>The latest has Abe indulging in dubious claims so pal Trump won’t be caught lying about the mooted free trade agreement between Japan and the United States.</p>
<p>Deploying rhetorical gymnastics, Abe is helping Trump create the illusion that Tokyo will essentially bail out US farmers going broke amid America’s trade brawl with China. Rather than deny Trump’s claim that the Japanese private sector will buy “hundreds of millions of dollars of corn,” Abe cited an infestation of “insect pests” impacting Japan’s own – tiny – corn sector.</p>
<p>That was news to farmers and those who watch the industry.</p>
<p>“There are no reasons for Japan to boost corn imports,” says economist Akihiko Hirasawa of the Norinchukin Research Institute, who studies the agricultural sector.</p>
<p>There you have it. Japan’s second-longest-serving leader has been reduced to spinning corn for a fact-challenged White House.</p>
<p>Yet Abe’s frankly bizarre assertions open a window onto why investors should lower their expectations about a bilateral trade deal – one sure to be more hype than substance.</p>
<h4>An old deal, recast as new</h4>
<p>Abe already has ample reason to distrust Trump. Among his first acts as president in January 2017 was pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, something Abe pleaded with Trump not to do.</p>
<p>The TPP was Tokyo’s insurance policy against Chinese domination. Yet Trump’s recent antics in <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/08/25/national/abe-trump-talks-set-sunday-sidelines-g7-summit-france/#.XXDB6ygzZPY" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/08/25/national/abe-trump-talks-set-sunday-sidelines-g7-summit-france/%23.XXDB6ygzZPY&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1568103474353000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGO41unbWgnxo_wX6BVJ6DRl0CzEw">Biarritz, France,</a> left Japan alarmed anew.</p>
<p>Desperate for a win as trade talks with China unravel, Trump declared that the US and Japan had a deal.</p>
<p>When asked about this by reporters, Abe had to admit that wasn’t the case. Abe, too, had to push back on Trump’s claims Tokyo was giving away the store to the “Art of the Deal” president, including private Japanese companies buying billions of dollars of US goods.</p>
<p>Abe had to explain that, essentially, Japan isn’t China.</p>
<p>But Trump’s haste and desperation for a deal – any deal – with the world’s third-largest economy greatly reduces the odds that the US-Japan trade relationship will undergo notable change.</p>
<p>Trump hopes to sign the big deal during the United Nations General Assembly, which starts in New York on September 17. Consider, though, the vagueness of the language being bandied about.</p>
<p>At present, both governments have an agreement on “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-prime-minister-abe-japan-bilateral-meeting-biarritz-france/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-prime-minister-abe-japan-bilateral-meeting-biarritz-france/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1568103474353000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFef_YuAS1MJEwIi_OFioL_N4_bpQ">core principles</a>” that any ultimate deal will touch agriculture, industrial tariff levels and digital trade.</p>
<p>For now, says economist Kimberly Ann Elliott of George Washington University, the draft US-Japan deal is “based on what was already negotiated in the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” even if Trump claims otherwise.</p>
<p>Doing so, she adds, is aimed at offsetting the competitive advantage that regional exporters, such as Canada, are now enjoying as a result of Japan’s tariff cuts under the salvaged TPP minus the US.</p>
<p>This is something Trump doesn’t want US voters to know. He’s not scoring new market access to Japan, he is just recreating in aggregate what he gave away in January 2017.</p>
<p>Trump’s trade negotiator Robert Lighthizer is certainly trying. Mostly, though, his team is flooding the <a href="https://beta.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/19/demands-not-diplomacy/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://beta.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/19/demands-not-diplomacy/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1568103474353000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEhBrO0pndsVgOnH9mvvrOhv3bSeg">rhetorical zone</a> with talk of a coming boom for American beef, dairy products, ethanol, pork, wheat and wine.</p>
<p>In reality, this is largely what then-President Barack Obama negotiated before Trump came along.</p>
<h4>Abe’s big fear</h4>
<p>Abe still needs to sell any deal at home. He spent vast amounts of political capital joining TPP and signing a trade deal with the European Union, and now needs a new infusion of capital to amend Japan’s pacifist postwar constitution, a Herculean political task.</p>
<p>Giving away too much to a US leader imperiling Japan’s economy and national security would scuttle Abe’s lifelong ambition to once again field a conventional military.</p>
<p>Here, Trump’s continued insistence that “<a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/25/us-japan-trade-deal-g7-1474461" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/25/us-japan-trade-deal-g7-1474461&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1568103474353000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEi9ZJ3rCG-bGHw898E-RZFI0_1Ng">many other things</a>” are on the discussion table put Abe and his lead negotiator Toshimitsu Motegi on edge. Both men fear falling into the mercurial president’s crosshairs and suffering the kind of trade bludgeoning that China is enduring.</p>
<p>To Japanese officials, “other things” is code for automobiles. One issue is Washington’s existing 2.5% tax on car imports. Trump’s folks say this tariff won’t change, but Tokyo still hopes the US might scrap it.</p>
<p>The bigger worry is Trumpian quotas on autos imports and a 25% tax on all cars and parts entering the US. Abe wants an ironclad agreement that Trump won’t impose such taxes, which would slam a $50 billion Japanese flagship industry.</p>
<p>But all Trump will commit to is to say that he is “not at this moment” considering such a step, one based in a 1962 national-security law. Yet he also continues to say “it’s something I could do at a later date if I wanted to.”</p>
<p>This kind of talk must surely spook Japan.</p>
<h4>All talk, no walk?</h4>
<p>One of Lighthizer’s talking points is to deliver a “gold standard” trade pact. Yet even “silver” might be an overly kind description for what Team Trump may come away with in what has been a very hastily done deal indeed.</p>
<p>It may all end up simply as an exercise in branding.</p>
<p>That was certainly the case with Trump’s much-ballyhooed renegotiation of the US-Korea trade deal that Obama and then-South Korean President Lee Myung-bak signed in 2011.</p>
<p>Even the Republican-leaning think tank <a href="https://www.cato.org/publications/free-trade-bulletin/trumps-first-trade-deal-slightly-revised-korea-us-free-trade" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.cato.org/publications/free-trade-bulletin/trumps-first-trade-deal-slightly-revised-korea-us-free-trade&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1568103474353000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE0_O08aQnW3RCnwS7Cg1Tgn_E86w">Cato Institute</a> admits that “renegotiation made only minor changes to the agreement and could be taken to mean that the reality of Trump’s trade policy may not always match the rhetoric.”</p>
<p>Similarly, Trump’s deal with Abe is sure to be touted as a big victory for corporate America. In reality, it looks far more likely to leave big-picture dynamics between the globe’s No 1 and No 3 economies little changed.</p>
Ruling party wins local elections, but results suggest major challenge ahead in 2021’s parliamentary vote
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/problems-for-putins-party-as-moscow-says-nyet/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/problems-for-putins-party-as-moscow-says-nyet/<p>Local elections took place across the vast reaches of the Russian state on Sunday, but the key focus of interest was Moscow City Council.</p>
<p>In the capital, despite an effective ban on the main opposition party, President Vladimir Putin’s party saw its majority whittled down. The Moscow result highlights a rising discontent towards Putin’s political machine and an increasing distrust of the president himself.</p>
<p>After his Russia of the Future party was barred from running for the capital’s city hall, main opposition leader Alexei Navalny urged his supporters to vote tactically for candidates with the best chances of defeating the party in power – Putin’s United Russia Party.</p>
<p>That strategy appears to have worked – to an extent.</p>
<p>While preserving its majority, the ruling party lost about one-third of the 38 seats it used to control, from a total of 45. The main beneficiary from tactical voting in the capital was the Communist Party, which secured 13 seats.</p>
<p>Navalny’s allies have been celebrating the results, which they see as an encouraging sign ahead of the 2021 National Parliamentary elections. Their hopes are that the upcoming vote could be a turning point for Russia’s political future.</p>
<h4>Communists empowered</h4>
<p>“Yes, honest people are still a minority in Moscow’s city council,” said Dmitry Gudkov, one of the blacklisted opposition leaders. “But in conditions of repression and police terror, Muscovites showed that they did not intend to put up with this.”</p>
<p>“Of course I was expecting better results – United Russia still has the majority,” Anton Lukyanov, a young Navalny supporter told Asia Times. “Still, I hope that the Communists elected will be denouncing corruption schemes happening in the Moscow Council.”</p>
<p>“Navalny’s tactical vote strategy was the right one, but still the playing field was uneven,” added Pavel Smirnov, another opposition-oriented voter who spoke after casting a ballot in a central district of Saint Petersburg. “The authorities always deploy enormous resources and falsification schemes to support their candidates.”</p>
<p>Political analyst Arkady Dubnov was skeptical about the tactical vote strategy adopted by Navalny, as the results do not reflective citizens’ real political orientations.</p>
<p>“Can someone believe that almost every third Muscovite sympathizes with the Communists?” he asked. “I doubt it.”</p>
<p>Outside the weather vane capital, election results were more mixed.</p>
<p>In the Khabarovsk region, United Russia suffered a heavy defeat with only two candidates elected in the regional parliament and the Liberal Democratic Party – despite its name, a nationalistic party – won by a landslide.</p>
<p>Yet overall, Putin’s political machine prevailed in the 16 governor’s races, including in Saint Petersburg, Russia’s second city, where Putin associate and incumbent governor Aleksandr Beglov secured a second term despite low ratings.</p>
<h4>A summer of discontent</h4>
<p>Election day followed a series of mass protests that rocked Moscow this summer, after dozens of opposition candidates were barred from running for Moscow City Hall. Officials claimed the signatures collected by these candidates were not valid as they allegedly contained mistakes and falsifications.</p>
<p>Affected candidates denounced their exclusion as politically motivated.</p>
<p>As a result, tens of thousands of Muscovites took to city streets demanding fair elections. According to observers, these were the largest protests since the 2011-2012 unrest that marked Putin’s re-election for his third presidential mandate.</p>
<p>Moscow and pro-Kremlin media largely underplayed the protests, mostly describing them as minority violent unrests, led by radical opposition leaders and supported by western media.</p>
<p>Authorities responded with a heavy-handed crackdown which led to about 2,700 arrests. Protesters were beaten and some are now facing long jail sentences, widely criticized for excessive harshness.</p>
<p>Many blacklisted candidates were associates of Navalny, who has been exposing corruption among the Russian elite in a hugely popular drive. Navalny himself was sentenced to 30 days behind bars for urging citizens to participate in unsanctioned rallies.</p>
<p>According to analysts, the Moscow protests were a lightning rod of broader popular discontent that is eating away at Putin’s formerly unassailable political establishment.</p>
<h4>Putin’s popularity plunge</h4>
<p>Since his re-election last year, the president’s approval ratings have been dropping sharply, mostly due to a stagnating economy and also to a highly unpopular pension reform that kicked off last year under cover of the World Cup. The plan raised the pension aged, sparking nationwide fury.</p>
<p>The Kremlin&#8217;s official – and emotively powerful – narrative depicts Putin’s Russia as a nation that, despite being surrounded by enemies, is a global power on a resurge. This tale has lost some traction in the face of falling living standards. Public trust in Putin, now in this third decade in power, stands at 30% – his lowest point in 13 years.</p>
<p>The decline of United Russia became evident last year, when it failed to secure four key regions in gubernatorial elections. Sunday’s elections in Moscow confirmed this trend. United Russia’s brand has become so toxic that most of its representatives ran as independents in this year’s elections.</p>
<p>Observers had said that Sunday’s polls were always going to be a test for Putin’s party ahead of 2021 Parliamentary elections. The results might give party strategists pause for though. Even with the main opposition leaders barred from running, United Russia found itself vulnerable in the country’s key electoral district, Moscow.</p>
<p>Sunday’s results suggest that the Kremlin’s brain trust needs to come up with a new formula if they are to be confident of preserving United Russia’s control of the country in the near future.</p>
Chinese firm’s stake in Volocopter revives debate about Chinese investments in the EU
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/geely-takes-stake-in-german-flying-taxi-firm/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/geely-takes-stake-in-german-flying-taxi-firm/<p>German &#8220;flying taxi&#8221; developer Volocopter said Monday it had raised 50 million euros (US$55.1 million) from investors including automaker Geely, risking a revived debate about Chinese investments in EU firms.</p>
<p>&#8220;The new funds will be used towards bringing the VoloCity aircraft to commercial launch within the next three years,&#8221; Volocopter said in a statement.</p>
<p>Small firms, including German contenders like Volocopter and Lilium, are in a race with established aircraft manufacturers like Airbus and billion-dollar tech giants like Uber to produce the first air taxis.</p>
<p>An array of 18 helicopter-style rotors powered by batteries heave the VoloCity into the sky, with the company saying it can carry two passengers with hand luggage up to 35 kilometers, or 22 miles, at speeds of up to 110 kilometers per hour.</p>
<p>The Financial Times reported that Geely&#8217;s stake in Volocopter will amount to around 10% of the firm.</p>
<p>Chairman Li Shufu said the investment underlines Geely&#8217;s &#8220;confidence in Volocopter air taxis as the next ambitious step in our wider expansion in both electrification and new mobility services.&#8221;</p>
<p>Volocopter said its founders remain the largest shareholders, alongside household names like Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler and chipmaker Intel.</p>
<p>Geely&#8217;s arrival as a major Daimler investor – secretively building up a roughly 10% stake before unveiling it in February 2018 – unsettled German politicians and businesses.</p>
<p>It followed a series of Chinese investments into key industries, sparking fears of vital technologies slipping out of German control and prompting Berlin to tighten laws on foreign investments, especially in &#8220;strategic&#8221; sectors.</p>
<p>But Daimler has sought to downplay the influence of Geely, which alongside its Chinese products has been buying up European carmakers like Sweden&#8217;s Volvo.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are delighted to see our partners at Geely investing into Volocopter and becoming shareholders as we are since 2017,&#8221; Daimler chief executive Ola Kallenius said.</p>
<p><em>– AFP</em></p>
Zhengzhou plant makes half the world’s iPhones
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/report-foxconn-cheats-china-iphone-workers/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/report-foxconn-cheats-china-iphone-workers/<p>Apple and its supplier Foxconn admitted they have been using too many temporary workers to staff an iPhone factory in central China, as a labor rights group accused them Monday of a number of workers rights violations.</p>
<p>China Labor Watch said it had its investigators working inside the factory in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou – which makes around half of the iPhones produced worldwide – assessing working conditions inside the plant run by the Taiwanese electronics company Foxconn.</p>
<p>The CLW report claims the Zhengzhou Foxconn factory is trying to save money by hiring &#8220;dispatch&#8221; or temporary workers, hired mostly in peak seasons and offered bonuses as an incentive, to whom they don&#8217;t have to pay compensation when their contracts end.</p>
<p>But the US-based rights group CLW says many workers were &#8220;cheated out of their bonuses.&#8221;</p>
<p>In August 2019 as many as half of the workforce were dispatch workers, which exceeds the legal maximum in China of 10 percent, says CLW.</p>
<p>CLW also claims a large number of high school students are working at Zhengzhou Foxconn with working conditions the same as those of regular workers, including hours of overtime.</p>
<p>&#8220;Apple and Foxconn know that the issue with dispatch workers is in violation of labor laws, but because it is profitable to hire dispatch workers, they haven&#8217;t addressed the issue,&#8221; said Li Qiang, executive director of China Labor Watch.</p>
<p>However, US tech giant and iPhone creator Apple said it had looked into the claims made in the report and found &#8220;most of the allegations are false.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;We have confirmed all workers are being compensated appropriately, including any overtime wages and bonuses, all overtime work was voluntary and there was no evidence of forced labor,&#8221; Apple said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;We did find during our investigation that the percentage of dispatch workers exceeded our standards and we are working closely with Foxconn to resolve this issue.&#8221;</p>
<p>In a separate statement Foxconn said a review of operations in Zhengzhou had identified &#8220;some workforce compliance issues,&#8221; which it was addressing.</p>
<p>Foxconn said it had found that the number of temporary workers was &#8220;not consistent with company guidelines.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;At no time did we find any evidence of forced labor and we can confirm that this facility currently has no interns working overtime,&#8221; the statement said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Verbal abuse is fairly common at the production site&#8221;, claims the CLW report, which also says that while workplace injuries are rare, managers will &#8220;often trick workers into hiding the truth&#8221; when accidents do happen.</p>
<p>Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, is a major source of factory labor in China and has been a Foxconn manufacturing hub for years.</p>
<p>Foxconn employs more than one million workers in China and is the largest private employer in the country where cheap labour helped fuel the company&#8217;s meteoric rise.</p>
<p>It came under the spotlight several years ago following allegations of employee suicides, labor unrest and the use of underage interns at its factories.</p>
<p>In August Foxconn admitted it had found cases of employed Chinese high school students in illegal overtime work making the Amazon Alexa devices at its factory in the southern city of Hengyang.</p>
<p><em>AFP</em></p>
Ruling party leader wants parliament, not the people, to elect the next president in 2024 when her daughter will likely run
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/megawati-looks-to-roll-back-indonesian-democracy/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/megawati-looks-to-roll-back-indonesian-democracy/<p>For all her stubborn political resistance during the late years of President’s Suharto’s New Order regime, ruling Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI-P) leader Megawati Sukarnoputri has never lived up to her puzzling reputation as a democratic icon.</p>
<p>The 72-year-old elder daughter of founding president Sukarno and a former president herself, Megawati is better known for losing two direct presidential races and avoiding an internal chairmanship election for the party she continues to dominate.</p>
<p>Now, she appears intent on turning back the democratic clock, pushing for constitutional changes in the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) that will reintroduce Suharto-era State Policy Guidelines (GBHN) and provide an opening for a move back to indirect presidential elections that could benefit her own daughter’s political ambitions.</p>
<p>Sweeping amendments to the 1945 Constitution at the dawn of democracy in 1999-2002 abolished the GBHN and also the previous system of electing a president in the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), the country’s highest legislative body.</p>
<p>“That’s what has worried us from the beginning,” says one well-placed government official, who listened carefully to Megawati’s speech. “She is trying to create a new landscape for 2024,” &#8211; reference to the year of the next simultaneous presidential and general elections.</p>
<p>When that rolls around, there is likely to be a long list of presidential contenders, most of them scions of Indonesia’s political and military elite which has never quite got over seeing a canny Central Java furniture maker called Joko Widodo snatch the ultimate electoral prize in 2014.</p>
<figure id="attachment_240364" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-240364" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Indonesia-Joko-Widodo-President-Bicycle-June-2018-e1568018315605.jpg" alt="Indonesian President Joko Widodo (R), sits on the back side of a decoration bicycle with a picture of himself at a newly opened terminal at Semarang city airport, in Central Java, on June 7, 2018. Photo: AFP/ Presidential Palace/Handout" width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Indonesia-Joko-Widodo-President-Bicycle-June-2018-e1568018315605.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Indonesia-Joko-Widodo-President-Bicycle-June-2018-e1568018315605-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Indonesia-Joko-Widodo-President-Bicycle-June-2018-e1568018315605-1568x1047.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Joko Widodo (R) sits on the back side of a decoration bicycle with a picture of himself, June 7, 2018. Photo: AFP/ Presidential Palace/Handout</figcaption></figure>
<p>Some will need party horses to ride, but the field already includes Megawati’s daughter, Puan Maharani, 46, Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan, 50, former opposition vice-presidential candidate Sandiaga Uno, 50, ex-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s son, Agus Harimurti, 41, and even perhaps twice-defeated presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, 67.</p>
<p>Unlike president Widodo, who banked heavily on his common man image to win a second term, few of the new generation hopefuls likely have what it takes to win a nationwide election, least of all Puan, now slated to be speaker of the newly expanded 575-seat Parliament.</p>
<p>But continuing her Sukarno family legacy has always been firmly in Megawati’s mind, even though as president she rarely addressed the nation and often seemed uninterested in government affairs or the ordinary Indonesians she professed to care about.</p>
<p>While moving to restore indirect elections would be such a retrograde step it would likely spark a public outcry, one seasoned Golkar Party politician believes it is nonetheless on the cards: “This is a game of trying to rig the system to maintain the power structure. The motivation is certainly there.”</p>
<p>A born populist, Widodo has already indicated his opposition to restoring the authority of the consultative assembly. “I’m directly elected,” he told a group of editors last month. “Why would I support (a plan) for the MPR to appoint the president?”</p>
<p>Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto, 57, a Widodo ally and chairman of second-ranked Golkar, is facing a challenge from current House Speaker Bambang Soesatyo, 56, who Megawati is supporting for the chairmanship of the MPR, the only body which can change the constitution.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378219" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-378219" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Indonesia-Puan-Maharani-Megawati-Sukarnoputri-August-2019-e1568018544565.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Indonesia-Puan-Maharani-Megawati-Sukarnoputri-August-2019-e1568018544565.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Indonesia-Puan-Maharani-Megawati-Sukarnoputri-August-2019-e1568018544565-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Indonesia-Puan-Maharani-Megawati-Sukarnoputri-August-2019-e1568018544565-1568x1047.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Puan Maharani (L) and her mother Megawati Soekarnoputri (R) at the Parliament building in Jakarta, August 16, 2019. Photo: Anton Raharjo / Anadolu Agency</figcaption></figure>
<p>With both sides claiming two-thirds of the 34 provincial branches, Hartarto is insisting on holding the party’s five-year convention in December, as scheduled, while Soesatyo is demanding it happen before the presidential inauguration, like PDI-P and a number of other parties.</p>
<p>But time is fast running out and analysts see little hope of Soesatyo unseating Hartarto before he exercises his prerogative of nominating his own candidate for the MPR post. Without Golkar, Megawati and Prabowo’s Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), whose help she has enlisted, would have little hope of changing the constitution.</p>
<p>Even at the height of her struggle against Suharto in 1995, Megawati was of two minds over where she stood, telling this correspondent in an eye-opening interview: “There’s nothing wrong with our system, we just have to let more light in.”</p>
<p>A year after she finally became president in 2001, she was at it again, warning darkly about “ultra-democracy” – a hoary old term popularized during her father’s rule in the 1950s to describe Indonesia’s flirtation with liberal democracy.</p>
<p>On other occasions, she criticized the “excessive freedoms” Indonesians were enjoying and complained about the number of “unqualified” political parties in the nation’s Parliament – a reference to 10 of the 21 parties which had only one seat.</p>
<figure id="attachment_335674" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-335674" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Indonesia-April-17-Elections-April-17-2019-Voter-Ballots-e1555507546641.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="1068" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Indonesia-April-17-Elections-April-17-2019-Voter-Ballots-e1555507546641.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Indonesia-April-17-Elections-April-17-2019-Voter-Ballots-e1555507546641-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Indonesia-April-17-Elections-April-17-2019-Voter-Ballots-e1555507546641-1568x1047.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">An Indonesian woman shows her ballots for the country&#8217;s general election at a polling station in Jakarta on April 17, 2019. &#8211; Photo: AFP/Adek Berry</figcaption></figure>
<p>In the first flush of democracy after 32 years of authoritarian rule that was not seen to be anything to worry about. The new 2019-24 House has only nine parties, with the PDI-P-led ruling coalition commanding a large majority of the seats.</p>
<p>Ironically, Megawati will have bad memories of 1999 when PDI-P topped the polls in the first democratic elections, only to see wily cleric Abdurrahman Wahid outmaneuver her for the presidency in the MPR; she was able to return the favor 21 months later on the back of Wahid’s ineptitude.</p>
<p>The 1999 setback was not nearly as bitter as her resounding defeat to Yudhoyono, her former political coordinating minister, in the first direct elections in 2004 – a loss the proud matriarch put down to his alleged betrayal and not to the lackluster campaign she ran.</p>
<p>Long a feature of the Suharto presidency, the GBHN were a set of political, economic and social principles the MPR enacted every five years that had to be followed by the central and regional governments.</p>
<p>But critics say a return to the GBHN would be hugely counterproductive by undermining decentralization, political freedoms, rule of law and democracy itself, which academics feel is already sliding backwards in Indonesia, along in other nations around the world.</p>
<p>Indonesian commentators are already warning of a two-fold danger – the political-business-military elite seeking to regain its old grip on power on one hand, and the robed forces of the right offering the dream of an Islamic state on the other.</p>
<p>There has been talk in the past that Megawati will step aside in 2020, but supporters noticed few signs of that at the party’s five-yearly convention in Bali last month where she showed a lot more energy, even playing with the crowd on occasion.</p>
<p>Not everyone was amused. After being subjected to an embarrassing lecture at the last PDI-P convention in 2015, Widodo had to listen this time to her demands that the party receive more than four seats in his new 35-strong Cabinet.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378221" style="width: 1596px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-378221" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Indonesia-Joko-Widodo-Megawati-Sukarnoputri-2018-e1568018948364.jpg" alt="" width="1596" height="996" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Indonesia-Joko-Widodo-Megawati-Sukarnoputri-2018-e1568018948364.jpg 1596w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Indonesia-Joko-Widodo-Megawati-Sukarnoputri-2018-e1568018948364-768x479.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Indonesia-Joko-Widodo-Megawati-Sukarnoputri-2018-e1568018948364-1568x979.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1596px) 100vw, 1596px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Indonesian President Joko Widodo (L) and PDI-P leader Megawati Sukarnoputri (R) in a file photo. Photo: Facebook</figcaption></figure>
<p>Later, he was overheard asking a senior aide: “Does she think she is the president?” It is a question he may have had to ask frequently given Megawati’s sense of entitlement and her annoyance at having to give ground to someone she has always regarded as a functionary.</p>
<p>“When Megawati speaks, I always have the feeling I am listening to my mother giving me a lecture,” says one official who is close to the palace. “The relationship with the president has changed because he is more confident in himself. She thinks he’s the same person.”</p>
<p>When the Cabinet is finally announced on or about inauguration day, on October 20, the make-up of the Cabinet will present the clearest clue whether Widodo has had his way, not only with Megawati, but also with the other party leaders. It will also determine whether he means it when he says he has “nothing to lose” in a second and final term.</p>
Global Times says US politicians have no right to define Hong Kong’s one country two systems principle
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/us-congress-warned-not-to-interfere-in-hong-kong/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/us-congress-warned-not-to-interfere-in-hong-kong/<p>The US Congress should not interfere in any way in the internal affairs of Hong Kong, the city’s government said in a <a href="https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201909/09/P2019090800928.htm?fontSize=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> on Sunday evening, after tens of thousands of protesters called for the re-introduction of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.</p>
<p>A spokesperson for the Hong Kong government expressed regret over the re-introduction of the Act, which is expected to be discussed in the US Congress on September 9.</p>
<p>The spokesperson said Hong Kong&#8217;s separate customs territory status and trade autonomy were conferred by Articles 116 and 151 of the Basic Law, instead of an offering by other jurisdictions.</p>
<p>The spokesperson said Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor had already announced on September 4 the complete withdrawal of the extradition bill.</p>
<p>Regarding the incidents in 2015 connected to a bookstore in Causeway Bay, the Hong Kong Police have not discovered evidence indicating there was “law enforcement across the boundary,” said the spokesperson.</p>
<p>“The government has all along been dealing with matters relating to Hong Kong in strict accordance with the principle of one country, two systems and the Basic Law.”</p>
<p>In late 2015, five booksellers from the Causeway Bay Bookstore disappeared and were reportedly detained in the mainland. In June 2016, Lam Wing-kee, one of the booksellers, successfully evaded the mainland officers who had taken him to Shenzhen after their mission in Hong Kong.</p>
<p>Lam later told the Hong Kong media that he was intercepted by mainland customs officers when he visited Shenzhen on October 24, 2015. He said he was then detained in China until he was allowed to return to Hong Kong as mainland officers asked him to get a hard disc containing a customer list from his bookstore.</p>
<figure id="attachment_377957" style="width: 322px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class=" wp-image-377957" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Central-rally_Sept-8.jpg" alt="" width="322" height="193" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Central-rally_Sept-8.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Central-rally_Sept-8-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Central-rally_Sept-8-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Central-rally_Sept-8-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Central-rally_Sept-8-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 322px) 100vw, 322px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Protesters gather at Charter Garden on September 8. Photo: Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<p>On Sunday, tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong rallied on the streets in Central district and called for the US Congress to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.</p>
<p>Organizers of the rally said the Chinese government had violated the Sino-British Joint Declaration and undermined the one country two systems agreement in Hong Kong. They said the US government should freeze the assets of Hong Kong and Chinese officials and senior police officers, who they said had brutally suppressed anti-extradition protests over the past three months.</p>
<p>On September 4, Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, said members of the US Congress “look forward to swiftly advancing the bipartisan Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act to reaffirm the US commitment to democracy, human rights and the rule of law in the face of Beijing’s crackdown.”</p>
<p>Democrats and Republicans “stand united” in backing the people of Hong Kong and their pursuit of democracy, she said.</p>
<p>Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on September 5 that US lawmakers should stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and abandon the bill as the issue was purely China’s internal affair.</p>
<p>Beijing will not give in to the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act and will not change its policy because of the US government’s political preference, the Global Times said in an <a href="http://opinion.huanqiu.com/editorial/2019-09/15426068.html?agt=15422" target="_blank" rel="noopener">editorial</a> published on Monday.</p>
<p>Hong Kong’s separate customs territory status is not a gift given by the US but it has a nature of mutual benefit, the editorial said, adding that US political elites have no right to define Hong Kong’s one country two systems principle.</p>
<p>Read: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hk-protesters-call-on-us-to-pass-human-rights-act/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HK protesters call on US to pass Human Rights Act</a></p>
<p>Read: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/fitch-downgrades-hong-kong-as-rallies-drag-on/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fitch downgrades Hong Kong as rallies drag on</a></p>
Videos went viral on social media showing police using tear gas on a street without warning and beating young people
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/more-violence-by-police-vandalism-by-protesters/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/more-violence-by-police-vandalism-by-protesters/<p>Clashes between Hong Kong police and protesters turned violent on Sunday night and several subway stations were closed after the stations were vandalized and fires were lit outside the entrance.</p>
<p>MTR stations in Central and Wan Chai on Hong Kong as well as Prince Edward and Mong Kok in Kowloon were closed during the clashes on Sunday night, but reopened on Monday morning.</p>
<p>After a relatively peaceful rally on Sunday afternoon and a march by thousands of protesters, who urged the US Congress to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, the situation turned ugly after a number of radical protesters blocked roads, vandalized MTR stations and riot police chased them down and took them away.</p>
<p>Some protesters also damaged traffic lights in the city’s business district, set fires outside an entrance to the Central MTR station and on Pedder Street. Both fires were quickly put out by firefighters.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378161" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-378161" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/fire-central-mTR.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/fire-central-mTR.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/fire-central-mTR-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/fire-central-mTR-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/fire-central-mTR-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/fire-central-mTR-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The fire that was started outside the Central MTR station. Photo: RTHK</figcaption></figure>
<p>Some people wearing facemasks and wearing black outfits used steel poles to damage ticket machines, gates and TV screens inside the Wan Chai MTR station before leaving.</p>
<p>At the same time, there was a heavy police presence at the Causeway Bay MTR Station and officers checked the identity cards of some passersby. At about 7pm, police repeatedly fired tear gas in the Causeway Bay area, including right next to the Sogo department store.</p>
<p>But according to a live broadcast on TV, the protesters had stayed at least 100 meters away from the police. There were no charges at the police by protesters or provocations like shining laser beams at them seen on the TV broadcast.</p>
<p>A video later went viral on social media showing some protesters throwing things at police officers inside Exit D at the Causeway Bay MTR station and then running away. The police then came out from the station and without warning, threw a tear gas grenade on the sidewalk close by which hit a reporter who was there.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VY7u1eYiA6Q?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>At 8:30pm, police fired more tear gas canisters, which left a number of citizens and reporters feeling unwell and those affected asked for help from the volunteer first-aid people at the site.</p>
<p>Many ordinary citizens who were walking past said they did not see any warning flags or hear any verbal warnings. One man was injured by a tear gas canister, while a woman said she had just got off a bus at Hysan Place and was chocked by the tear gas. Many people went online and slammed the police for neglecting people&#8217;s safety.</p>
<p>On the Kowloon side, many people carried flowers and placed them outside one of the exits from the Prince Edward MTR station, even though the government had denied an online rumor that a number of people had died there on August 31 when riot police stormed into train carriages and hit passengers and protesters.</p>
<p>Some shone laser beams at the police, who fired several bean bag rounds from an elevated position, hitting the feet of one female first-aid volunteer. A clearance operation then took place with a large number of riot police charging from Mong Kok Police Station in Prince Edward in the direction of Mong Kok.</p>
<p>A stand-off also happened between citizens and police in Whampoa. The Hospital Authority said as of 9pm on Sunday, 10 people aged between 14 and 39 had been hospitalized.</p>
<p>On Monday morning, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet Ngor was given a tour of the Central MTR stations to check on their status. Lam walked around inside the station and was shown the repair work to the ticket machines and gates, Radio Television Hong Kong reported.</p>
<p>She was accompanied by transport chief Frank Chan, CEO Jacob Kim and chairman Rex Au Yeung of MTR Corp. The media was not informed of the tour.</p>
<p>On Saturday night, a group of young people were subdued by police in Tai Po MTR Station.</p>
<p>Videos also surfaced showing a male student pinned to the floor of the station by police and being hit by five or six riot police officers with batons. The student was bleeding severely from his head. He was seen lying on the ground.</p>
<p>The police tried to use their shields to block reporters&#8217; cameras.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ri91PQ0btb0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>At almost the same time, another team of police officers subdued a group of about 10 people and ordered them to squat. A plain-clothes policeman wearing a helmet was seen using his baton and twice hit one young man in the head, then attacked his back twice.</p>
<p>The young man, who was not carrying any weapons, did not resist. Instead, he used his body to protect two girls standing near him from being hurt by the officer.</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8igKj9va9yg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>The video footage did not show that the two schoolboys who were beaten by police were responsible for the damage done in the station earlier or that they had provoked the police officers, the Ming Pao Daily reported.</p>
<p>It was reported that five students from the Tai Po Carmel Pak U Secondary School were arrested, including the two who were being hit by police.</p>
<p>A group of students and alumni from the school formed a human chain outside the school on Monday morning to express their anger over the brutality the police unleashed on the students.</p>
<p>Members of the alumni said the five students were arrested for alleged unlawful assembly and all had been released on bail. The student with the head injury was still hospitalized and was a candidate for this year’s DSE, nowNews reported.</p>
Bond markets in the region could be revitalized if there is the will to do so, but the migrant crisis is dominating political agendas
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/central-america-markets-languish-on-migrant-misery/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/central-america-markets-languish-on-migrant-misery/<p>The monthly arrival of hundreds of thousands of people into the US and Mexico from the Northern Triangle of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras and elsewhere in Central America over the past year is an economic, diplomatic and humanitarian tragedy – and a specific investor disappointment.</p>
<p>Investors in Latin American sovereign bonds entered originally with a dedicated index. Equities joined corporate bonds on stock exchanges, with Panama recently added to the Morgan Stanley Capital International frontier list. Performance suffered amid fiscal and balance-of-payments woes, crime and insecurity, and lack of competitiveness and policy reform after initial enthusiasm following passage of the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA).</p>
<p>Regional banking and capital-market integration blueprints were considered but never fully realized, amid notable strides in private pension creation and financial-sector regulation. International development institutions and private fund managers offered encouragement and technical support, but focus disappeared long before the refugee and rule-of-law crises. In the US, the administration of then-president Barack Obama led a broad initiative to improve governance, and before cutting aid, President Donald Trump repeated that approach. The new Development Finance Corporation may revisit financial-market building with venture-capital deals, but the bigger agenda, to channel portfolio and remittance inflows, is missing.</p>
<h4>El Salvador</h4>
<p>After the civil war, El Salvador&#8217;s priorities were reconstruction and modernization in line with international standards. The central bank, working with donors, invited bankers and fund managers to share best practices and recommendations for active credit and securities markets. Salvadoran officials committed to Basel Committee capital-adequacy guidelines and diversifying beyond private debt placement. The exchange-rate regime provided stability as a dollar peg and then the US dollar outright was adopted. The ex-rebel Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) and conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) parties alternated in power and promoted manufacturing exports to boost the balance of payments.</p>
<p>They introduced private pension funds as a main institutional investor and regular domestic and external bond buyer. However, public debt, now over 70% of gross domestic product, is a drag on the economy – projected to grow 2% this year – and it jeopardized the core social security system as benefits were delayed. A new president, former San Salvador mayor Nayib Bukele, took office in June after a landslide victory and promised to clean up the mess through “market-friendly” methods. He had campaigned on increased social spending within a 3% fiscal deficit, and fresh funding alternatives to lift domestic demand, which could include a second-generation private retirement contribution scheme.</p>
<h4>Guatemala and Honduras</h4>
<p>Guatemala and Honduras are smaller in frontier bond markets, with lower debt levels and more commodities dependence. Honduras’ debut issue several years ago coincided with a fight over the removal of its president for corruption, as dueling chief executives laid claim before snap elections. It previously received debt relief from bilateral and multilateral lenders under the low-income Heavily Indebted Poor Country programs of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, mirroring a commercial access path more common in Africa.</p>
<h4>Dominican Republic and Panama</h4>
<p>While the Northern Triangle has pronounced “junk” credit ratings, the Dominican Republic, a small component in JPMorgan’s bond benchmarks, is &#8220;BB&#8221; and Panama is investment-grade &#8220;BBB.&#8221; Both register faster 5% growth, and have enacted tax and spending changes for greater budget balance. Before its recent tourism scare with unexplained visitor deaths, the DR was a rare buy recommendation. Remittances combined with foreign residential and hotel investment for a minimal 1.5%-of-GDP current-account gap, and President Danilo Medina in his second term backs public-private partnerships to remedy chronic electricity shortage.</p>
<p>Panama received ratings upgrades over the past year, with the incoming government of President Laurentino Cortizo intent on combating corruption and expanding mining and financial services to offset a decline in revenue from the Panama Canal. It was a top MSCI performer in the first half, with a nearly 25% gain.</p>
<p>Central America’s positive economic and financial sector elements that once comprised the DR-CAFTA spirit have been forgotten with the current migration and security pressures and cross-border business and political recriminations. Bank and broker associations and chambers of commerce can reprise advocacy for credit and capital-market strengthening, as dedicated multilateral lenders such as the Inter-American Development Bank and Andean Development Corporation (CAF) emphasize these themes within good governance and sustainable investment priorities.</p>
<p>The CAF held an annual conference in Washington last week, and speakers cited hemispheric displacement and social and physical infrastructure crises that new bond issues and indices and investor outreach policies could help overcome.</p>
The high-tech company launches a new line of Spectacles 3 sunglasses
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/snap-crackle-and-3d-pop/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/snap-crackle-and-3d-pop/<p class="p1">Snap, you have been caught in 3D.</p>
<p class="p1">The US tech group has unveiled a new-generation sunglasses which can take photographs in glorious 3D to share on its Snapchat messaging service known for ephemeral posts.</p>
<p class="p1">Spectacles 3, which will be released later this year, will be priced at US$380, more than twice the price of an &#8220;Original&#8221; version available on the Southern California company&#8217;s website.</p>
<p class="p1">Spectacles sunglasses with built-in cameras that synchronize wirelessly with smartphones to share pictures or video snippets to Snapchat were launched in late 2016.</p>
<p class="p1">“We&#8217;re excited to introduce Spectacles 3, the latest version of Spectacles sunglasses with dual cameras designed to capture the world in 3D,&#8221; the company announced online.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;Two HD cameras on either side of the frame capture depth and dimension the way your eyes do, and power new augmented reality creative tools to enhance your Snaps.&#8221;</p>
<p class="p1">A hit with young and trendy internet users, Snap’s popular features include filters and lenses that could be used to modify images.</p>
<p class="p1">Still, the new model comes as Snapchat works to hone augmented reality capabilities.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;It&#8217;s easy to reimagine your favorite moments with a suite of new 3D Effects,&#8221; Snap said while pitching the new sunglasses available for preorder at spectacles.com.</p>
<h4>&#8216;Magic moment&#8217;</h4>
<p class="p1">&#8220;Create your own magic moment, or add new lighting, landscapes, and other magical effects to an entire scene with a swipe.&#8221;</p>
<p class="p1">The ability to augment views of reality whether through special eye wear or smartphone camera lenses has been an area of keen interest and investment by technology companies such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft.</p>
<p class="p1">Evan Spiegel, the chief executive at Snap, revealed in April that the mobile phone app is regularly used by 75% of all 13- to 34-year-olds in the United States.</p>
<p class="p1">It had 190 million daily users – about 60 million more than Twitter – but is still operating at a loss.</p>
<p class="p1">While widely popular, messaging app Snapchat has struggled to turn a profit since its creation in 2011.</p>
<p class="p1">Earlier this year, it unveiled new features including an integrated gaming platform, an expansion of its original series and new partnerships with developers.</p>
<p class="p1"><em>– reporting by AFP</em></p>
Movie version triggers tourism boom as devotees from China to California descend on Highclere Castle, home of the drama
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/fans-flock-to-film-set-of-downton-abbey/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/fans-flock-to-film-set-of-downton-abbey/<p class="p1">Bedecked in 1920s dresses, feathered hats, and three-piece suits, visitors from across the world have flocked to England&#8217;s Highclere Castle, scene of the Downton Abbey smash television drama – and now, at last, a major movie.</p>
<p class="p1">The majestic setting of one of the most popular series in history will appear on the big screen when the first spin-off film opens globally later this month.</p>
<p class="p1">Winner of dozens of awards since its British debut in 2010, the period drama about early 20th century aristocrats has mesmerized Yifan Gao, a Chinese student attending university in Scotland.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;Everyone our age knows Downtown Abbey [in China],” the 25-year-old said, posing for a photograph in a vintage dress, a glamorous necklace draped around her neck.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;It&#8217;s charming,&#8221; she added after taking a six-hour train ride from Edinburgh with two friends to attend a special weekend at the castle organised by producers of the film. &#8220;I used that series to practice my English.&#8221;</p>
<p class="p1">Boasting 200 rooms, four chefs and four gardeners, the 19th-century estate is now home to George Herbert, Eighth Earl of Carnarvon, and Lady Fiona Carnarvon, his wife.</p>
<p class="p1">The running costs of the estate, which also includes 3,000 sheep, are huge, the earl pointed out, without going into specifics.</p>
<p class="p1">Before the TV series stopped production in 2015, &#8220;there were even more people working there, 20 gardeners, 16 people in the kitchen,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tu3mP0c51hE" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p class="p1">The number of visitors to the castle has more than doubled to 90,000 people a year because of Downton Abbey, a series which began with the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and ended in late 1925.</p>
<p class="p1">The film, which officially premieres at London&#8217;s Leicester Square this week, picks up the plot in 1927, with the Crawley family anxiously awaiting a visit from King George V and Queen Mary.</p>
<p class="p1">The castle was dressed up for the occasion as well, throwing open its doors to fans and filling its driveways with immaculately kept antique cars.</p>
<p class="p1">Its sweeping oak staircase and airy rooms decorated with paintings, warmed by fireplaces and attended by servants in period clothes meant that the castle almost felt like home to devout admirers of the shows.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;It felt so familiar like I have been there before,&#8221; Daniel Bissler, 70, a Californian dressed in a sky-blue and white striped suit and bow tie the colors of the Union Jack, said after admiring the various rooms and hallways.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;It really captures a very special time in England, when the working class, women, were fighting for their rights,&#8221; Shayane Lacey,24, a Londoner who came with her mother Roya, said.</p>
<p class="p1">Emily Dickmann from Chicago felt &#8220;almost emotional&#8221; after stepping inside the bedroom of Lady Sybil, one of the heroines of the show.</p>
<p class="p1">&#8220;I think we Americans are obsessed with the English. We don&#8217;t have lords and ladies, that long history, and it is kind of fascinating for us,&#8221; she said.</p>
<p class="p1">– AFP</p>
Additional tariffs on Chinese imports due in October could push the country into recession
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/weak-employment-report-confirms-slowing-us-economy/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/weak-employment-report-confirms-slowing-us-economy/<p>Private payrolls grew by only 96,000 in August, far below the consensus expectation. Including government jobs, total payrolls rose by 130,000, although the count was inflated by hiring for the 2020 census. The data confirm a sharp slowdown in economic activity, but not a recession – yet.</p>
<p>Whether the US tips into an actual downturn during the runup to the 2020 elections depends on how consumers respond to price hikes due to additional tariffs on Chinese imports scheduled to hit on Oct. 1 and again on Oct. 15. As I reported in this space <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/consumer-weakness-is-the-biggest-threat-to-us-economy/">Sept. 5</a>, a sharp and unexpected drop in the University of Michigan’s consumer confidence index suggests that US consumers might not sustain the 4.7% annualized rate of real spending growth reported in the second-quarter GDP data.</p>
<p>The broadest measure of private labor in the US is the total number of weekly hours worked – the product of the total number of private-sector employees and average weekly hours worked. This global measure stopped growing in 2019 after a steady rise through 2018.</p>
<p><img class="size-full wp-image-378111 alignnone" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/private-payrolls.png" alt="" width="977" height="709" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/private-payrolls.png 977w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/private-payrolls-768x557.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 977px) 100vw, 977px" /></p>
<p>The year-on-year rate of growth of total hours worked slid from a 2018 peak of 2.5% to just 1% in August. As the chart shows, the growth rate is back to where it was at the worst of the growth slump towards the end of the Obama Administration.</p>
<p><img class="size-full wp-image-378112 alignnone" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Total-private-payroll.png" alt="" width="977" height="709" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Total-private-payroll.png 977w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Total-private-payroll-768x557.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 977px) 100vw, 977px" /></p>
<p>The most sensitive forward-looking indicator of US economic activity, my research shows, is the Conference Board’s index of help wanted ads online. This turned negative in 2019 for the first time since the recovery began.</p>
<p><img class="size-full wp-image-378109 alignnone" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Conference-board.png" alt="" width="1554" height="1166" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Conference-board.png 1554w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Conference-board-768x576.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1554px) 100vw, 1554px" /></p>
<p>Economists tend to rely on the National Association of Purchasing Managers’ diffusion indices for manufacturing and services. The Conference Board’s leading economic indicators, including the help-wanted index, anticipate the widely-followed Purchasing Managers’ Indices published by NAPM.</p>
<p>The stock market cheered when the NAPM’s PMI for services printed at a higher-than-expected level on Friday (although a similar index published by Markit came in lower than expected). Investors should have been following the Conference Board’s data.</p>
<p><img class="size-full wp-image-378110 alignnone" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/correlation.png" alt="" width="977" height="709" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/correlation.png 977w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/correlation-768x557.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 977px) 100vw, 977px" /></p>
<p>Lagged changes in the Conference Board’s Leading Economic indicators have predictive value for future values of the NAPM’s Composite index (manufacturing plus services).</p>
Formal education in Bangladesh is forbidden for refugees
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/student-suspended-for-being-rohingya-refugee/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/student-suspended-for-being-rohingya-refugee/<p>A Bangladesh university has suspended a student for being Rohingya, officials said Sunday, as impatience with the refugees grows following a second failed attempt to repatriate them to Myanmar.</p>
<p>Some 740,000 of the Muslim minority fled to southeast Bangladesh after a military crackdown in Myanmar&#8217;s Rakhine state in August 2017, joining 200,000 Rohingya already there.</p>
<p>Formal education in Bangladesh is forbidden for refugees.</p>
<p>Cox&#8217;s Bazar International University said it had suspended Rahima Akter Khushi, 20, and would investigate her case after local media said she hid her Rohingya identity to enrol.</p>
<p>&#8220;Rohingya can&#8217;t be admitted to our university, because they are refugees,&#8221; the institution&#8217;s head Abul Kashem said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Foreigners can study here, but they must follow a procedure.&#8221;</p>
<p>He said the young woman had supplied documents showing she completed high-school studies in Bangladesh&#8217;s port city of Chittagong.</p>
<p>Khushi, who was studying law, told AFP the private university&#8217;s decision had &#8220;mentally shattered&#8221; her.</p>
<p>&#8220;Any other girl may have killed themselves by now. But&#8230; I am trying my best to face the situation,&#8221; she said.</p>
<h4>&#8216;Overreaction&#8217;</h4>
<p>The decision follows the latest repatriation attempt by Bangladesh and Myanmar, which failed with not a single refugee volunteering to cross the border back home.</p>
<p>Dhaka also recalled or re-assigned senior government officials who allowed some 200,000 Rohingya to take part in a rally to mark the second anniversary of the mass exodus on August 25, several days after the repatriation attempt.</p>
<p>Bangladeshi authorities have since ordered operators to shut down mobile phone services in the refugee camps, which have seen an outbreak of violence in recent weeks, while high-speed internet has also been suspended at night.</p>
<p>Rights group Human Rights Watch on Saturday urged the government to end the communications clampdown, saying it had &#8220;made matters worse.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;The authorities should take a level-headed approach instead of overreacting to tensions and protests by isolating Rohingya refugees in camps,&#8221; HRW Asia director Brad Adams said in a statement.</p>
<p>News website Rohingya Post said Khushi was targeted after a 2018 interview with international news agency Associated Press went viral in Cox&#8217;s Bazar, where the camps are.</p>
<p>Khushi said her parents arrived in Bangladesh from Rakhine in the 1990s and she was born and raised in Cox&#8217;s Bazar.</p>
<p>&#8220;I wanted to go further. But I don&#8217;t know how I would do it,&#8221; Khushi told AFP.</p>
<p>Brisbane-based Rohingya leader Mojib Ullah said suspending Khushi would do &#8220;nothing but kill potential&#8221; in the community, who had limited opportunities to study in Rakhine.</p>
<p><em>AFP</em></p>
Services to share the spotlight at pre-holiday launch of new iPhone models
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/china-the-wild-card-as-apple-prepares-big-event/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/china-the-wild-card-as-apple-prepares-big-event/<p>The iPhone will be front and center at Apple&#8217;s upcoming media presentation even as the California tech giant steps up its efforts in content and services for its devices.</p>
<p>In its trademark tight-lipped style, Apple disclosed little about its plans for Tuesday&#8217;s event at its headquarters in the Silicon Valley city of Cupertino.</p>
<p>For years now, Apple has hosted events in the fall to launch new iPhone models ahead of the holiday shopping season.</p>
<p>Speculation is that Apple will introduce three upgraded iPhones, including &#8220;Pro&#8221; models, and a successor to its more affordable iPhone XR, as premium handset prices hover around $1,000.</p>
<p>Some analysts say services, subscriptions and online content will share the stage with the company&#8217;s glitzy hardware as Apple seeks to shift its focus.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think it is going to be the first year the event is going to also be about services,&#8221; Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi said.</p>
<p>&#8220;We might get to see what Apple looks like as a company when they are talking about services and hardware as one product.&#8221;</p>
<p>Milanesi was curious to see whether Tuesday&#8217;s presentation offers iPhone deals that &#8220;bundle&#8221; music, television or game services with new handsets.</p>
<p>&#8220;You have an opportunity to really bring value to the hardware with services,&#8221; Milanesi said.</p>
<h4>TV+ turned on?</h4>
<p>Apple recently released a smartphone-generation credit card in the US and is keen to launch its TV+ streaming service before Disney goes live with a rival service in November.</p>
<p>Many wonder whether the launch of Apple TV+ will be among Tuesday&#8217;s announcements.</p>
<p>With Hollywood stars galore, Apple unveiled streaming video plans along with news and game subscription offerings as part of an effort to shift its focus to digital content and services to break free of its reliance on iPhone sales.</p>
<p>The company also plans to launch a new game subscription service called Apple Arcade internationally by the end of this year.</p>
<p>Apple managed to grow its overall revenues, albeit by a modest one percent, to $53.8 billion, even as iPhone revenues plunged nearly 12 percent in the April-June period.</p>
<p>The company delivered strong growth from digital content and services that include its Apply Pay and Apple Music, along with wearables and accessories like the Apple Watch and Air Pods.</p>
<p>Some of those accessories could also get upgrades on Tuesday.</p>
<h4>China wild card</h4>
<p>Analysts warn that Apple still faces challenges as rivals chip away at the smartphone market, in which the iPhone&#8217;s share is less than 12 percent.</p>
<p>As the iPhone maker refines its handsets, other makers are pushing into new areas such as 5G devices and folding smartphones.</p>
<p>Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in a note to investors that he expected a &#8220;trifecta of iPhone 11s&#8221; that will help the company &#8220;put a fence around&#8221; its user base.</p>
<p>About a third of the 900 million iPhone users around the world are in an upgrade &#8220;window,&#8221; meaning there&#8217;s a strong potential for handset sales, according to Ives.</p>
<p>&#8220;While China remains a wild card, we are bullish into Apple&#8217;s future&#8221; in the coming year, Ives said.</p>
<p>China accounts for about 17 percent of Apple sales overall, and has tremendous room for growth, according to Techsponential analyst Avi Greengart.</p>
<p>The trade war between the US and China has complicated Apple&#8217;s effort to gain ground in that market, where gains by local titan Huawei have come partly at the California-based company&#8217;s expense.</p>
<p>&#8220;Apple needs Chinese consumers to treat the iPhone as a preferred premium brand at a tricky geopolitical moment,&#8221; Greengart said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Huawei&#8217;s premium smartphone, laptop, and tablet sales have been surging inside China partly based on nationalism as a response to the trade war with the US and specific US government actions against Huawei.&#8221;</p>
<p><em>AFP</em></p>
Market ‘no longer governed by supply and demand’: UAW energy minister
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/majors-mull-options-as-trade-war-hits-oil-prices/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/majors-mull-options-as-trade-war-hits-oil-prices/<p>Top oil producers will consider fresh output cuts at a meeting this week, but analysts are doubtful they will succeed in bolstering crude prices dented by the US-China trade war.</p>
<p>The OPEC petroleum exporters&#8217; cartel and key non-OPEC members want to halt a slide in prices that has continued despite previous production cuts and US sanctions that have squeezed supply from Iran and Venezuela.</p>
<p>Analysts say the OPEC+ group&#8217;s Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, which monitors a supply cut deal reached last year, has limited options when it meets in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.</p>
<p>UAE Energy Minister Suheil al-Mazrouei said Sunday the group would do &#8220;whatever necessary&#8221; to rebalance the crude market, but admitted that the issue was not entirely in the hands of the world&#8217;s top producers.</p>
<p>Speaking at a press conference in Abu Dhabi ahead of the World Energy Congress, to start Monday, he said the oil market is no longer governed by supply and demand but is being influenced more by US-China trade tensions and geopolitical factors.</p>
<p>The minister said that although further cuts will be considered at Thursday&#8217;s meeting, they may not be the best way to boost declining prices.</p>
<p>&#8220;Anything that the group sees that will balance the market, we are committed to discuss it and hopefully go and do whatever necessary,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;But I wouldn&#8217;t suggest to jump to cuts every time that we have an issue on trade tensions.&#8221;</p>
<p>While cuts could help prices, they could also mean producers lose further market share, analysts say.</p>
<p>&#8220;OPEC has traditionally resorted to production cuts in order to shore up the prices,&#8221; said M. R. Raghu, head of research at Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz).</p>
<p>&#8220;However, this has come at the cost of reduction in OPEC&#8217;s global crude market share from a peak of 35 percent in 2012 to 30 percent as of July 2019,&#8221; he told AFP.</p>
<p>The 24-nation OPEC+ group, dominated by the cartel&#8217;s kingpin Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC production giant Russia, agreed to reduce output in December 2018.</p>
<p>That came as a faltering global economy and a boom in US shale oil threatened to create a global glut in supply.</p>
<p>Previous supply cuts have mostly succeeded in bolstering prices.</p>
<p>But this time, the market has continued to slide – even after OPEC+ agreed in June to extend by nine months an earlier deal slashing output by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd).</p>
<h4>Trade war</h4>
<p>The new factor is the trade dispute between the world&#8217;s two biggest economies, whose tit-for-tat tariffs have created fears of a global recession that will undermine demand for oil.</p>
<p>Saudi economist Fadhl al-Bouenain said the oil market has become &#8220;highly sensitive to the US-China trade war.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;What is happening to oil prices is outside the control of OPEC and certainly stronger than its capability,&#8221; Bouenain told AFP.</p>
<p>&#8220;Accordingly, I think OPEC+ will not resort to new production cuts&#8221; because that would further blunt the group&#8217;s already shrunken market share, he said.</p>
<p>European benchmark Brent was selling at $61.54 per barrel Friday, in contrast with more than $75 this time last year but up from around $50 at the end of December 2018.</p>
<p>The deliberations also coincide with stymied production from Iran and Venezuela and slower growth in US output, meaning that supplies are not excessively high.</p>
<p>&#8220;US shale output growth does not have the same momentum as in previous cycles, and OPEC production is at a 15-year low, having fallen by 2.7 million barrels per day over the past nine months,&#8221; Standard Chartered said in a commentary last month.</p>
<p>&#8220;We think that the oil policy options for key producers are limited, for the moment,&#8221; the investment bank said.</p>
<p>No decisions will be taken at Thursday&#8217;s meeting, but it should produce recommendations ahead of an OPEC+ ministerial meeting in Vienna in December.</p>
<p>Rapidan Energy Group said the alliance might need to cut output by an additional one million bpd to stabilize the market.</p>
<p>But the problem will be deciding which member countries will shoulder the burden of any new cuts.</p>
<p>Saudi Arabia, which is the de facto leader of OPEC and pumps about a third of the cartel&#8217;s oil, took on more than its fair share last time around.</p>
<p>It has also undergone a major shake-up in its oil sector, announcing the replacement of energy minister Khalid al-Falih with Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman in the early hours of Sunday morning ahead of a much-anticipated stock listing of state oil giant Aramco.</p>
<p>Bouenain said he believes that Riyadh is likely to resist taking on further cuts, given the impact on the kingdom&#8217;s revenues.</p>
<p>Raghu said that &#8220;without a favorable resolution to the dispute, OPEC&#8217;s production cuts will not result in a sizeble uptick of oil prices.&#8221;</p>
<p><em>AFP</em></p>
Combat ship Giffords armed with Naval Strike Missile and MQ-8C Fire Scout drone surveillance and targeting platform
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/us-navys-ship-killer-missile-bound-for-china/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/us-navys-ship-killer-missile-bound-for-china/<p>It can travel more than 100 nautical miles, passively detect an enemy through imaging stored in its computer brain and can kill a target so precisely that an operator can tell it to aim for a specific point on a ship — the engine room or the bridge, for example.</p>
<p>And it’s heading to China&#8217;s backyard.</p>
<p>The US Navy littoral combat ship Gabrielle Giffords deployed recently from San Diego, California, packing the service’s new Naval Strike Missile, transforming the LCS from an under-gunned concept ship gone awry to a legitimate threat to Chinese warships at significant ranges, Defense News reported.</p>
<p>Giffords is the second LCS to deploy this year. The LCS Montgomery also deployed from San Diego in June after a 19-month lapse in LCS deployments as the Navy reworked the way it mans and trains crews for the ships.</p>
<p>Pacific Fleet spokesman Capt. John Gay confirmed Giffords’ deployment, saying the ship got underway Sept. 3, equipped with the Naval Strike Missile and the newly mission-capable MQ-8C Fire Scout drone. The Fire Scout, an over-the-horizon surveillance and targeting platform, achieved its initial operational capability in June.</p>
<p>A Navy official speaking on condition of anonymity said the ship was deploying to the Indo-Pacific theater. Giffords’ sister ship, the Montgomery, is currently operating in the Gulf of Thailand, according to a Navy website.</p>
<p>When equipped with the subsonic, sea-skimming Raytheon/Kongsberg-made Naval Strike Missile, or NSM, and Northrop Grumman’s Fire Scout for surveillance over the horizon, an LCS can hit a target about 100 nautical miles away. That’s more than 30 miles further than the published range of the current anti-ship missile, the Harpoon.</p>
<p>According to TheDrive.com, the NSM navigates to the general target area using a combination of GPS, inertial navigation system (INS), and terrain recognition, and can either fly over or around islands and other land masses. The INS offers an effective backup in the increasingly likely event that an opponent disrupts the GPS connectivity</p>
<p>In its terminal stage of flight, the missile switches to an infrared imaging seeker to home in on the target. Using a built-in database of representative ship types, the weapon can automatically discriminate between the intended target and other objects, which gives it a high degree of accuracy and makes it much less susceptible to electronic warfare tactics and countermeasures.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378036" style="width: 704px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-378036 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-06-at-3.30.33-PM.png" alt="" width="704" height="425" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-06-at-3.30.33-PM.png 704w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-06-at-3.30.33-PM-300x180.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 704px) 100vw, 704px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The US Navy littoral combat ship Gabrielle Giffords is armed with the service’s new Naval Strike Missile, transforming the LCS from an under-gunned concept ship gone awry to a legitimate threat to Chinese warships. Handout.</figcaption></figure>
<p>The missile’s guidance system also gives it a secondary land-attack capability. With its range, though, this is hardly a comparable capability to long-range land attack cruise missiles, such as the Tomahawk.</p>
<p>The NSM also makes random movements in its terminal stage of flight to help avoid enemy close-in defense systems and has low-observable or &#8220;stealthy&#8221; characteristics to make it more difficult for adversaries to spot in advance.</p>
<p>According to Naval Technology, the Fire Scout is a Schweitzer 333 helicopter based on the proven design of the Schweitzer 330 commercial lightweight manned utility helicopter.</p>
<p>It has a folded length of just less than 23 ft.and has a gross weight of 2,550 lbs. The vehicle has an endurance greater than six hours, providing a loiter time of more than four hours at a combat radius of 110 nm.</p>
<p>The Schweitzer 330 uses a Rolls-Royce Allison C250 engine generating 480 hp. The engine provides a maximum speed of more than 125 knots and a flight ceiling of 20,000 ft.</p>
<p>Fire Scout has the ability to autonomously take-off from and land on any aviation-capable warship and also at unprepared landing zones close to the forward edge of the battle area. It can carry out surveillance, find tactical targets, track and designate targets and provide accurate targeting data to strike platforms such as strike aircraft, helicopters and ships, and also carry weapons.</p>
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<p>Meanwhile, the deployment is the latest sign that the US Navy is gradually upping its game in the Pacific, which during the past decade has seen rising tension over Chinese maritime claims, Defense News reported.</p>
<p>Under the Trump administration, the Navy has stepped up its freedom-of-navigation patrols of Chinese claims in the South China Sea, a type of patrol where Navy ships sail within 12 nautical miles of a Chinese-claimed features to demonstrate that the US has the right to pass peacefully and freely without any preconditions in waters China claims as its territory.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378039" style="width: 730px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-378039 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-08-at-11.29.44-AM.png" alt="" width="730" height="445" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The MQ-8C Fire Scout drone, an over-the-horizon surveillance and targeting platform, achieved its initial operational capability in June. Handout.</figcaption></figure>
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<p class="element element-paragraph">The US Navy has made a dedicated push to improve the ranges of its systems, from its missiles and sensors, to its air wing with the development of the MQ-25 Stingray unmanned aerial refueling drone and new conformal fuel tanks for the F/A-18 Super Hornets that increase speed and range of the service&#8217;s mainstay aircraft, the report said.</p>
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<p class="element element-paragraph">But it’s also a sign that despite a steady drumbeat inside the Pentagon to “move faster” to get new capabilities to the fleet, the Navy’s process is still moving painfully slow.</p>
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<p class="element element-paragraph">“It’s great that the Navy is doing these improvements, but it’s very incremental,” said Bryan Clark, a retired submarine officer and analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. &#8220;It has been a decade since the Navy said: ‘Hey, we need to start an unmanned aircraft program of some kind, and we need put better anti-ship missiles on our ships.’ ”</p>
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<p class="element element-paragraph">“And here we are, 10 years later, and the MQ-25 is still making its way toward fielding, which won’t happen for several years, and we’re finally deploying a ship with a better anti-ship cruise missile,&#8221; Clark added. &#8220;So kudos to the Navy for doing it, but this is emblematic of the problem the [Department of Defense] has in making the shift toward new ways of fighting. It just can’t get out of its own way to field a new capability in under a decade.”</p>
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<p class="element element-paragraph">The Navy is on track to take delivery of 35 littoral combat ships total, a major chunk of the surface fleet.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378041" style="width: 767px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-378041 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-08-at-11.36.26-AM.png" alt="" width="767" height="462" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-08-at-11.36.26-AM.png 767w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-08-at-11.36.26-AM-300x180.png 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-08-at-11.36.26-AM-600x360.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 767px) 100vw, 767px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">An F/A-18 Super Hornet sporting conformal fuel tanks running along the top of the fuselage. Handout.</figcaption></figure>
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Suspected of altering the terms of a bonus
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/crisis-hit-nissans-ceo-to-resign-over-pay-issue-reports/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/crisis-hit-nissans-ceo-to-resign-over-pay-issue-reports/<p>The CEO of crisis-hit Japanese auto giant Nissan plans to resign, local media reported Monday, days after admitting he received more pay than his entitlement.</p>
<p>The reports said it was not immediately clear when Hiroto Saikawa would step down, as the firm struggles with the aftermath of the arrest of its former chief Carlos Ghosn on charges of financial misconduct.</p>
<p>Nissan said it had no immediate comment on the reports, which first emerged overnight in the Nikkei business daily.</p>
<p>Nikkei said Saikawa has told several Nissan executives of his intent, but that no date for his resignation nor a successor has been decided.</p>
<p>The reported decision comes days after Saikawa acknowledged that a Nissan probe revealed he had received more pay than he was entitled to, in a scheme under which directors can receive a bonus if their company&#8217;s share price rises above a certain level in a set period.</p>
<p>Saikawa is suspected of improperly adding 47 million yen ($440,000) to his compensation by altering the terms of a bonus, according to reports.</p>
<p>Nissan has not confirmed the details of the payments, but Saikawa apologized last week, while denying any wrongdoing.</p>
<p>&#8220;I left the issue to someone else so I had thought it was dealt with in an appropriate manner,&#8221; he told reporters.</p>
<p>Nissan is due to hold a board meeting later Monday, where details of the investigation that revealed the overpayments are expected to be shared.</p>
<p>The car maker is currently undergoing an overhaul intended to strengthen governance after the Ghosn scandal.</p>
<p>In June, Nissan shareholders voted in favor of various measures including the establishment of three new oversight committees responsible for the appointment of senior officials, pay issues and auditing.</p>
<p>They also approved the election of 11 directors as the firm restructures, among them two Renault executives as well as Saikawa.</p>
<p>The reforms are designed to put Nissan on a more stable footing after the arrest of Ghosn, who has been sacked from his leadership roles at the Japanese firm and others.</p>
<p>He is awaiting trial on charges of under-reporting millions of dollars in salary and of using company funds for personal expenses.</p>
<p>Ghosn has denied any wrongdoing and accuses Nissan executives opposed to his plans to further integrate the firm with France&#8217;s Renault of plotting against him.</p>
<p><em>AFP</em></p>
Pompeo warns that the US will not reduce pressure on the Taliban
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/afghan-officials-praise-trumps-decision-to-cancel-summit/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/afghan-officials-praise-trumps-decision-to-cancel-summit/<p>The United States and Afghanistan&#8217;s Taliban on Sunday both left the door open to fresh talks after President Donald Trump abruptly canceled a secret summit, but the insurgents threatened to inflict greater costs.</p>
<p>The United States also said it would not relent in fighting the militants after Trump cited a Taliban attack that killed a US soldier for scuttling the unprecedented meeting.</p>
<p>Trump said he had invited Taliban leaders, as well as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, for talks Sunday at the presidential retreat of Camp David on a draft deal that would see the United States withdraw thousands of troops and wind down its longest-ever war.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://apple.news/Ayy1aZnBdQLmpI34Towso0g">Afghan government</a> praised Trump’s decision on Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported. But a Taliban official, speaking on behalf of the group in Doha, said Taliban leaders had not, in fact, agreed to a meeting until the deal was completed, accusing the president of lying about the purported Camp David plans. Any deal would have been announced in Doha first, the official said.</p>
<p>“We accepted the invitation but said we would come soon after the signing ceremony of the agreement,” the Taliban official said on Sunday.</p>
<p>Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined on Sunday to say whether the planned meeting had actually been confirmed.</p>
<p>“There’s been some confusion,” Pompeo said on CBS. “Suffice it to say, we were confident that we were going to be able to have these meetings, what would be this afternoon, at Camp David.”</p>
<p>In a series of television interviews, Pompeo did not rule out a return to talks but said the United States needed a &#8220;significant commitment&#8221; from the Taliban.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not pessimistic,&#8221; Pompeo told NBC. &#8220;I&#8217;ve watched the Taliban do things and say things they&#8217;ve not been permitted to do before.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;I hope it&#8217;s the case the Taliban will change their behavior, will recommit to the things that we&#8217;ve been talking to them about for months,&#8221; he said on ABC.</p>
<p>&#8220;In the end, this will be resolved through a series of conversations,&#8221; he added, urging the Taliban to drop its long-running refusal to negotiate with Ghani&#8217;s internationally recognized government.</p>
<p>He said that Trump had not decided whether to go ahead with a withdrawal, which under the draft deal would pull 5,000 of the roughly 13,000 US troops from Afghanistan next year.</p>
<p>But Pompeo – who late Saturday oversaw the repatriation of the remains of the US soldier, Sergeant First Class Elis Barreto Ortiz – warned that the United States was &#8220;not going to reduce the pressure&#8221; on the Taliban.</p>
<p>He said US forces had killed more than 1,000 insurgents in the past 10 days alone.</p>
<h4>&#8216;Americans will be harmed&#8217;</h4>
<p>Veteran US negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad had spent a year meeting with the Taliban, which said that Trump showed &#8220;neither experience nor patience.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Americans will be harmed more than any other&#8221; by Trump&#8217;s decision, warned a statement by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.</p>
<p>US &#8220;credibility will be harmed, their anti-peace stance will become more visible to the world, their casualties and financial losses will increase, and the US role in international political interaction will be discredited even further,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>But the spokesman said that the Taliban still believed &#8220;that the American side will come back to this position&#8221; of talks that seek &#8220;the complete end of the occupation.&#8221;</p>
<p>The office of Ghani, whose government is rejected by the Taliban as illegitimate, cautiously saluted the &#8220;sincere efforts of its allies&#8221; after Trump called off the summit.</p>
<p>The Afghan presidency in a statement also &#8220;insisted that a real peace can only be achieved if the Taliban stop killing Afghans and accept a ceasefire and face-to-face talks with the Afghan government.&#8221;</p>
<p>Trump&#8217;s dramatic about-face came weeks before Afghanistan holds presidential elections, raising fears that the Taliban will step up their campaign of violence to disrupt voting.</p>
<h4>Criticism ahead of 9/11</h4>
<p>Trump relishes dramatic gestures, such as meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but the idea of inviting Taliban leaders to US soil still stunned Washington.</p>
<p>The would-be talks angered even some allies of Trump, who noted that the Taliban would be visiting three days before the 18th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, which triggered the US invasion of Afghanistan.</p>
<p>&#8220;Camp David is where America&#8217;s leaders met to plan our response after Al-Qaeda, supported by the Taliban, killed 3,000 Americans on 9/11. No member of the Taliban should set foot there. Ever,&#8221; tweeted Liz Cheney, a Republican congresswoman and daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney.</p>
<p>Considering Trump&#8217;s penchant for bombast, some questioned if the summit was even set to take place.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m still looking for confirmation an actual, physical trip to Camp David was planned,&#8221; Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro told CNN, while adding: &#8220;It&#8217;s very odd to invite a terrorist organization like that to Camp David.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;This is the worst president when it comes to negotiating I think we&#8217;ve had in a very long time,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Afghanistan&#8217;s neighbor Iran – which historically has opposed the Taliban and has tense relations with the United States – said it was &#8220;gravely concerned.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Defeated foreigners must leave and fratricide must end, especially as foreigners can exploit the situation, bringing renewed bloodshed,&#8221; Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted.</p>
<p><em>– Additional reporting AFP</em></p>
Ma, along with a team of 18 people, founded what would become the Alibaba from an apartment in Hangzhou in 1999
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/alibaba-chairman-jack-ma-moving-on/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/alibaba-chairman-jack-ma-moving-on/<p>You might call it, the end of an era.</p>
<p>Jack Ma, the charismatic English teacher-turned-businessman, is officially stepping down as chairman of Chinese retail behemoth, Alibaba, on Sept. 10 — the day the entrepreneur turns 55.</p>
<p>As part of his post-retirement plan, the co-founder of the multinational intends to spend a good amount of his vast fortunes (worth over US$41 billion) on his first love — education.</p>
<p>Ma is leaving his multi-billion dollar e-commerce conglomerate in the hands of his trusted partners — CEO Daniel Zhang and Co-founder and vice-chairman Joseph Tsai, Business Today reported.</p>
<p>He had announced last year that he would hand over the company chairman&#8217;s post to Zhang. Ma would, however, serve on the Alibaba board till 2020.</p>
<p>Daniel Zhang, popularly known Xiaoyaozi (free and unfettered one) among Alibaba&#8217;s employees, has won the trust of the Chinese billionaire during his 11 years of association with the e-commerce giant.</p>
<p>From a cash-strapped entrepreneur to one of the richest man in the world, Ma&#8217;s journey is nothing short of a miracle.</p>
<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s succeeded at what Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and (Yahoo co-founder) Jerry Yang failed at, which is making themselves redundant,&#8221; Jeffrey Towson, Peking University professor, was quoted by AFP as saying.</p>
<p>Towson added that Ma built a robust culture and innovative culture at Alibaba, which had helped the company stay ahead in the game.</p>
<figure id="attachment_378067" style="width: 726px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-378067 size-full" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-08-at-3.44.29-PM.png" alt="" width="726" height="472" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Ma was Alibaba’s driving force and a frequently irreverent ambassador, known for stunts at company celebrations. File photo.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Alibaba clocks over 750 million monthly active users. Its cutting-edge tech prowess, coupled with China&#8217;s massive consumer base, has helped the company helped compete with the likes of Amazon, the US e-commerce giant.</p>
<p>Ma was Alibaba’s driving force and a frequently irreverent ambassador for the company, known for stunts like a Michael Jackson-inspired dance at an Alibaba anniversary celebration two years ago and starring in his own kung fu short film, AFP reported.</p>
<p>Ma, along with a team of 18 people, had founded Alibaba from an apartment in the eastern city of Hangzhou to connect Chinese suppliers with foreign retailers in 1999.</p>
<p>It expanded into consumer retailing, online finance and other services, becoming the world&#8217;s biggest e-commerce company by the total value of goods sold across all its platforms.</p>
<p>Twenty years later, it has more than 66,000 full-time employees and a market value of about US$420 billion.</p>
<p>Alibaba has continued to expand its ecosystem, pushing into cloud computing, entertainment, and a “new retail” concept — combining online ordering with bricks-and-mortar stores — while its Alipay finance unit has pioneered cashless digital payments, AFP reported.</p>
<p>Despite slowing Chinese economic growth and the US trade war, earnings have so far remained strong.</p>
<p>Ma, who has established an eponymous charitable organization, already has launched a range of education initiatives.</p>
<p>Last month he sketched out his mantra going forward during a technology debate in Shanghai with Elon Musk, good-naturedly chiding the US entrepreneur about his obsession with putting a man on Mars.</p>
<p>“We need a hero like you, but we need more heroes like us improving things on Earth,” Ma said.</p>
<p>In a 2015 interview with Charlie Rose reported by CNBC, Ma said he faced rejection in his life many times.</p>
<p>“I failed at key primary school test two times and I failed like three times for the middle schools,” Ma told Rose. “I applied for Harvard — 10 times rejected,” Ma said. But eventually, Ma attended and graduated from the Hangzhou Teacher&#8217;s Institute with a major in English language education.</p>
<p>Ma was also rejected for a job at Kentucky Fried Chicken (24 people applied and all but Ma got the job), as a cop and for a gig as a waiter at a four star hotel in Hangzhou (his cousin got the job).</p>
<p>The key, Ma says, is to not let rejection keep you down for long.</p>
<p>“Of course, you are not happy when people say ‘no.’ Have a good sleep, wake up, try it again,” Ma said.</p>
<p>Ma told Charlie Rose he’s inspired by Forrest Gump in that respect: “I love Forrest Gump,” Ma said. “Simple — never give up.”</p>
Lam Wing-kee fled to Taiwan in April after Hong Kong announced plans to allow extraditions to China
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hk-bookseller-raises-us100000-to-open-taiwan-store/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hk-bookseller-raises-us100000-to-open-taiwan-store/<p>A Hong Kong bookseller who disappeared into Chinese custody for half a year raised nearly US$100,000 in less than a day on Friday (Sept. 6) as he tries to open a new store in Taiwan, Channel News Asia (CNA) reported.</p>
<p>Lam Wing-kee fled to Taiwan in April after Hong Kong announced plans to allow extraditions to China, a move which sparked months of massive street protests in the financial hub.</p>
<p>The 64-year-old was one of five publishers selling gossip-filled tomes on China&#8217;s leaders who vanished at the end of 2015, resurfacing in mainland custody and making televised confessions.</p>
<p>Their disappearance — and the abduction of a billionaire from a five-star hotel by suspected Chinese agents — caused widespread alarm in Hong Kong.</p>
<p>Lam launched an online crowd-funding campaign late Thursday to open a bookstore in Taiwan, the CNA report said.</p>
<p>By Friday evening over 1,600 people had pledged more than NT$3.11 million (US$99,800), exceeding his target of NT$2.80 million in less than a day.</p>
<p>&#8220;Many thanks for everyone&#8217;s support &#8230; thank you for giving me more confidence to accomplish this,&#8221; Lam said in a message on a Facebook page for his bookstore project.</p>
<p>He added that he aims to pick a location in six months and open his shop by mid-2020.</p>
<p>Lam was the man who blew the whistle on what happened to the missing booksellers, the CNA report said.</p>
<p>He was allowed back to Hong Kong in June 2016 on condition that he pick up a hard drive listing the bookstore&#8217;s customers and return to the mainland.</p>
<p>Instead he skipped bail and went public with explosive testimony detailing how he was blindfolded by mainland police after crossing the border at Shenzhen and spent months being interrogated.</p>
<p>Lam fled to Taiwan after Hong Kong&#8217;s extradition bill was announced, saying he feared being sent to the mainland if the law passed, the CNA report said.</p>
<p>Taiwan&#8217;s history of providing sanctuary to Chinese dissidents has been mixed.</p>
<p>The island still does not recognize the legal concept of asylum but has, on occasion, allowed dissidents to stay on long-term visas.</p>
<p>Speaking to Vice news this week, Lam said he would not return home, despite the controversial extradition bill being officially dropped.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am wanted by the Chinese government,&#8221; he told Vice. &#8220;It&#8217;s obvious that if I stayed in Hong Kong, I&#8217;d be dead for sure.&#8221;</p>
<p>Taiwan&#8217;s President Tsai Ing-wen has pledged to provide assistance to Hong Kongers facing prosecution for involvement in anti-government protests who seek sanctuary on the island, sparking a rebuke from Beijing to &#8220;stop meddling&#8221; in the territory&#8217;s affairs.</p>
<p>Ties with Beijing have soured since Tsai came to power in 2016 because her party refuses to recognize the idea that Taiwan is part of &#8220;one China.&#8221;</p>
<p>The extradition protests have plunged Hong Kong into crisis and present a huge challenge to Beijing&#8217;s authority.</p>
Depreciation of the yuan, trade tensions, a sluggish macro economy and the grounding of B737 MAX among factors
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/chinese-carriers-hit-turbulence-in-first-half/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/chinese-carriers-hit-turbulence-in-first-half/<p>State-owned Chinese carriers posted higher revenues in the first half of the year although net profits slipped because of the slower pace of travel demand along with the grounding of nearly 100 troubled B737 MAX aircraft and the postponed delivery of new jets, China Daily reported.</p>
<p>From January to June, Air China Ltd. recorded 65.31 billion yuan (US$9.1 billion) in sales revenue, up 1.67% year-on-year. Its net profit reached 3.14 billion yuan, down 9.49% over the same period a year ago, its earnings report said.</p>
<p>Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines saw its sales revenue in the first half reach 58.78 billion yuan, rising 8.02 % year-on-year. Its net profit of 1.94 billion yuan in the period represents a fall of 14.89% year-on-year, the company said.</p>
<p>Guangzhou-based China Southern Airlines, China&#8217;s largest carrier by passenger traffic, reported sales revenue of 72.94 billion yuan, increasing 7.97% year-on-year. Its operations yielded a net profit of 1.69 billion yuan, a 21.85% drop year-on-year, the airline said.</p>
<p>The three State-owned carriers all said that fuel costs are their biggest expenditure. On average, oil accounted for about 32% of the total costs in the first half.</p>
<p>The performance of airline firms is usually affected by external factors like oil prices and exchange rates. In the first half, those two factors did not fluctuate much, and the major factor was the main business of carriers, an industry expert said.</p>
<p>&#8220;With an overall downward trend in macroeconomic demand in the first half, business travel demand dropped, and the freight business has seen negative growth,&#8221; said Lin Zhijie, an aviation industry analyst.</p>
<p>&#8220;The depreciation of the yuan against the US dollar, Sino-US trade tensions, the sluggish macro economy, the transfer of some airlines to the new Beijing Daxing International Airport, and the grounding of the B737 MAX jets are among the factors expected to contribute to a challenging second half for the airline companies,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>Chinese airlines, the largest operator of the MAX jets, flew 96 out of the 371 MAX jets in service worldwide prior to their grounding due to two fatal crashes. The losses from the grounding can be as high as 1 billion yuan based on the scale of the grounding and operational capacity of the three airlines, industry experts estimated.</p>
<p>By Sept 30, China Eastern and China Southern will move to the new Daxing airport, which is located about 60 kilometers south of the city center. The main business of Air China will remain at the current Beijing Capital International Airport.</p>
<p>Separately, the three State-owned carriers said in statements on Aug 30 that they have each signed an agreement with the Commercial Aircraft Corp of China on the purchase of 35 ARJ21 aircraft, China&#8217;s first domestically manufactured regional passenger jetliner, the report said.</p>
<p>The catalog list price of an ARJ21-700 plane is about US$38 million, which includes the cost of the fuselage and engine, COMAC said. The total value of 105 aircraft is about US$4 billion.</p>
<p>The ARJ21 had two customers, Chengdu Airlines and Genghis Khan Airlines, which is based in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. They mainly fly regional routes in smaller cities.</p>
<p>&#8220;The purchase of the ARJ21 by the three major State-owned airlines indicates the aircraft will enter a new stage of operation in an all-round way. The airlines are expected to use the aircraft on regional routes with smaller customer flows, and provide more convenience for travelers from third-tier and fourth-tier cities,&#8221; Lin said.</p>
Jack Ma’s ultra-competitive one-year experiential and academic program is brewing up leadership success
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/alibaba-helps-boost-rwandan-coffee-sector/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/alibaba-helps-boost-rwandan-coffee-sector/<p>Coffee lovers in China are increasingly embracing brands like Starbucks, Costa and local ones like Luckin. But few know that one of the countries producing high-quality, high-altitude coffee beans is Rwanda.</p>
<p>As the East African nation positions itself as a world-class specialty coffee destination, Chinese company Alibaba Group is lending a helping hand to raise its flavor and aroma profile through technologies and networks, as well as people dedicated to its promotion, China Daily reported.</p>
<p>Diabate Dean Harry, a French project leader from Tmall Global, seems a perfect fit. A graduate of Alibaba&#8217;s global talent nurturing program — the Alibaba Global Leadership Academy — he understands the Chinese tech emporium just as much as he understands Africa, the continent where his parents originally come from.</p>
<p>Before joining Alibaba, Harry worked for leading retail brands on the Champs-Elysees in Paris and delved into exotic technologies, such as augmented reality. He then moved to China and started his own digital marketing business in the heart of Shanghai, the report said.</p>
<p>Harry said he sees himself playing a bridging role in a company that is successful in the home market but also wants to seek growth overseas. That&#8217;s what propelled him to apply for Alibaba&#8217;s ultra-competitive one-year program for future global leaders, which offers experiential and academic learning.</p>
<p>Upon graduation he became a full-time staff member at Tmall Global, a branch dedicated to bringing overseas goods to Chinese customers via e-commerce. His background coupled with deep comprehension of the Chinese market landed him the opportunity to promote coffee from Rwanda.</p>
<p>Rough packaging is one malaise plaguing the sales of Rwandan coffee. Harry encouraged local partners to change the packaging and conducted a number of public relations campaigns to alter the stereotype held by many people about Rwandan coffee, the report said.</p>
<p>During the October campaign named &#8220;Tear Off the Label for Africa,&#8221; close to 80 million people read the articles that were shared on Weibo about Rwanda and its coffee and more than 700,000 people joined the conversation on the platform.</p>
<p>Results were heartening: In just four days, 1,066 packs of Rwandan coffee were sold. About 762 packs were sold in just one day and one of the coffee brands sold out on the first day.</p>
<p>Harry believed he acted as an ambassador of an ongoing effort known as the electronic World Trade Platform, a concept proposed by Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma to connect worldwide small-and medium-sized enterprises through e-commerce, technology and streamlined administrative procedures. Rwanda is the first African nation to sign the eWTP deal with Alibaba.</p>
<p>&#8220;I strongly believe that the best help doesn&#8217;t come through donations or charity but through empowerment. Our work has empowered an entire industry, creating tangible win-wins for everyone including farmers in the coffee washing stations and changing the lives of the three coffee suppliers that participated in this campaign,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>According to Al Jazeera, there are approximately 400,000 farmers across Rwanda earning a living by cultivating coffee. The crop, which brought in US$58 million in 2017, is key to the country&#8217;s economy.</p>
<p>Rwanda also exports more than 80% of its coffee, its second-largest export earner, with just 16% of all homegrown produce being consumed domestically, according to Clare Akamanzi, executive director of Rwanda Development Board (RDB).</p>
<p>Rwandans, it turns out, would rather drink tea, soft drinks or a cold beer. Locals say tea is seen as a utility, coffee is seen as a luxury.</p>
<p>Rwandan coffee, in the bean form, is mostly exported to Switzerland, the United States and Singapore, with primary African destinations being South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania. It was only in April 2018, that the first consignment of roasted coffee beans left Rwanda for the US, the report said.</p>
<p>Experts say Rwanda coffee is a fusion of sweet, buttery and caramel notes with surprising citrusy and fruity overtones. This amalgamation of flavors is delicately balanced to create a complex and unusual coffee flavor.</p>
Officials announce new directives for the resort’s security team to make the process friendlier and less intrusive
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/shanghai-disney-adjusts-its-food-policy/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/shanghai-disney-adjusts-its-food-policy/<p>Shanghai Disney Resort is to allow food to be taken into the park among what it called &#8220;multiple measures to optimize park operation and guest experience,&#8221; the resort operator announced on Friday.</p>
<p>According to SHINE, the announcement follows a number of complaints and even a lawsuit over the ban on visitors bringing their own food.</p>
<p>The resort has listened to the feedback on the types of items which are currently prohibited, food and beverages in particular, said Johnny Xue, director of security, safety, fire and health at the resort.</p>
<p>Based on that feedback, he said, the resort will adjust its food policy to allow guests to bring their own food into the park provided they are not in containers with reheating capabilities, do not require preparation and are for self-consumption, the report said.</p>
<p>More specific details will be announced soon, the resort added.</p>
<p>“We understand that our guests may feel uncomfortable when undertaking security screenings. We have been reviewing our security screening procedures and working with multiple government authorities to make adjustments in order to meet two important goals — the foremost is to ensure safety and security for our guests and cast, and also to provide a more guest-friendly experience,” said Xue.</p>
<p>Xue also announced new directives for the resort’s security team to make the process friendlier and less intrusive. Guests will be encouraged to open their bags and remove any flagged items and return items themselves when the screening is completed, he said.</p>
<p>With support from the local government, the resort team is also seeking ways to adjust screening procedures in the longer term by leveraging new technologies and equipment, according to the resort, the report said.</p>
<p>Guests will also continue to be allowed to bring bottled beverages into the park, while alcohol, cans and glassware will still be prohibited.</p>
<p>“The resort team has been working closely with various government departments to finalize these improvements and we aim to start the implementation immediately,&#8221; Xue added.</p>
<p>The resort came under fire after a student at the East China University of Political Science and Law filed a suit at the Pudong New Area People&#8217;s Court over the park&#8217;s ban on March 5 this year. A hearing on April 23 has yet to return a verdict.</p>
<p>In August, the China Consumers Association backed the student and said it thought the resort was taking advantage of its role as the only Disney park on the Chinese mainland to impose restrictions on visitors.</p>
Protesters say Washington should sanction Hong Kong and Chinese officials who had brutally suppressed the rallies
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hk-protesters-call-on-us-to-pass-human-rights-act/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/hk-protesters-call-on-us-to-pass-human-rights-act/<p>Tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong rallied on the streets in Central district on Sunday and called for the US Congress to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.</p>
<p>At noon on Sunday, protesters started gathering at Charter Garden in Central, singing the US national anthem and chanting slogans including &#8220;Liberate Hong Kong, resist Beijing!&#8221; and &#8220;Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong!&#8221;</p>
<p>Many were holding the US flag and calling on US politicians to help the democratic movement in Hong Kong.</p>
<figure id="attachment_377938" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-377938" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protesters-statement.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protesters-statement.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protesters-statement-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protesters-statement-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protesters-statement-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protesters-statement-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Representatives of the march organizers read a statement on stage. Photo: Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<p>At 2pm, organizers of the rally read a statement from a stage. They said the Chinese government had violated the Sino-British Joint Declaration and undermined the one country two systems agreement in Hong Kong.</p>
<p>They urged the US Congress to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act so the US government could freeze the assets of Hong Kong and Chinese officials and senior police officers, who they said had brutally suppressed anti-extradition protests over the past three months.</p>
<p>They also said Beijing should pay the debt the Qing government owed some US investors as the People&#8217;s Republic of China had inherited the sovereignty of Hong Kong, which was given to the British during the Qing dynasty. The debt was estimated to now be about US$1 trillion.</p>
<p>On September 4, Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, said members of the US Congress “look forward to swiftly advancing the bipartisan Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act to reaffirm the US commitment to democracy, human rights and the rule of law in the face of Beijing’s crackdown.”</p>
<p>Democrats and Republicans “stand united” in backing the people of Hong Kong and their pursuit of democracy, she said.</p>
<figure id="attachment_377939" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-377939" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Japanese-banner_USA-flag.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Japanese-banner_USA-flag.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Japanese-banner_USA-flag-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Japanese-banner_USA-flag-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Japanese-banner_USA-flag-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Japanese-banner_USA-flag-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">US flags were common at the protest on September 8. Photo: Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_377940" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-377940" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Memo-papers_HK-dislikes-CN.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Memo-papers_HK-dislikes-CN.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Memo-papers_HK-dislikes-CN-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Memo-papers_HK-dislikes-CN-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Memo-papers_HK-dislikes-CN-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Memo-papers_HK-dislikes-CN-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Protesters stick memo papers on a banner, showing support for those who were injured by riot police. A man (right) holds a Hong Kong Independence flag. Photo: Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_377941" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-377941" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protester_Central_Sept-8.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protester_Central_Sept-8.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protester_Central_Sept-8-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protester_Central_Sept-8-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protester_Central_Sept-8-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protester_Central_Sept-8-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A woman holds a paper calling for the US Congress to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. Photo: Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_377942" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-377942" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Protesters-Ar-Leung-and-Mr-Tsui.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Protesters-Ar-Leung-and-Mr-Tsui.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Protesters-Ar-Leung-and-Mr-Tsui-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Protesters-Ar-Leung-and-Mr-Tsui-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Protesters-Ar-Leung-and-Mr-Tsui-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Protesters-Ar-Leung-and-Mr-Tsui-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Ar Leung (left) said he joins the protests whenever he is on leave. Tsui (right) says Hong Kong is not China. Photo: Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<p>The organizers of Sunday&#8217;s rally at Charter Garden received a letter of no objection from the police on Saturday, meaning the rally could go ahead. A lot of protesters walked the streets with their children.</p>
<p>Dressed as Captain America, Ar Leung told Asia Times that he would have joined Sunday&#8217;s rally even if the organizers could not get a letter of no objection. He said there were a lot of cases when riot police had beaten up and arrested protesters who were on their way home. He said he was not afraid of being intercepted by the police as his shield was not a weapon.</p>
<p>Tsui, who had joined a dozen protests, said the police had arrested a lot of peaceful protesters and local residents on the streets without giving a reason. However, he said he still wanted to take part in protests to show the world that &#8220;Hong Kong is not China.&#8221; He said the US government should sanction pro-Beijing Hong Kong officials and lawmakers.</p>
<p>Hong Kong&#8217;s Goddess of Democracy, holding a flag that said &#8220;Free Hong Kong, Revolution Now,&#8221; appeared at Charter Garden.</p>
<figure id="attachment_377949" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-377949" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Chinazi-flag.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Chinazi-flag.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Chinazi-flag-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Chinazi-flag-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Chinazi-flag-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Chinazi-flag-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Some protesters mock Beijing as &#8216;Chinazi.&#8217; Photo: Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_377950" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-377950" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/statue_HK_protesters.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/statue_HK_protesters.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/statue_HK_protesters-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/statue_HK_protesters-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/statue_HK_protesters-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/statue_HK_protesters-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Hong Kong&#8217;s Goddess of Democracy appears in Central on September 8. Photo: Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_377951" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-377951" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/young-protester-and-child.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/young-protester-and-child.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/young-protester-and-child-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/young-protester-and-child-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/young-protester-and-child-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/young-protester-and-child-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Young people and children were among the protesters. Photo: Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_377955" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-377955" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protesters-call-for-five-demands_Sept-8.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protesters-call-for-five-demands_Sept-8.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protesters-call-for-five-demands_Sept-8-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protesters-call-for-five-demands_Sept-8-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protesters-call-for-five-demands_Sept-8-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protesters-call-for-five-demands_Sept-8-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Protesters call on the Hong Kong government to meet their five demands. Photo: Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<p>At 2:15pm on Sunday, protesters started marching to the US Consulate General building. They raised up their hands, calling on the Hong Kong government to meet all their five demands, which include the withdrawal of “riot” charges laid against people who took part in protests on June 12, the setting up of an independent probe into events during the three months of protests, the release of all the arrested protesters and the implementation of universal suffrage.</p>
<p>On September 4, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced the complete withdrawal of the extradition bill, one of the five demands.</p>
<p>At 3pm, organizers of the protest submitted a letter to the US Consul. A large number of riot police were standing by in front of the US Consulate General building.</p>
<p>When protesters approached the building, they stopped chanting slogans and kept silent to show respect to US officials.</p>
<p>In an updated travel advisory for Hong Kong on Friday, the US State Department warned that its citizens and consular employees had become targets of a propaganda blitz by China &#8220;falsely accusing the United States of fomenting unrest.&#8221;</p>
<figure id="attachment_377952" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-377952" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protesters-march-towards-US-Consulate-General.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protesters-march-towards-US-Consulate-General.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protesters-march-towards-US-Consulate-General-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protesters-march-towards-US-Consulate-General-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protesters-march-towards-US-Consulate-General-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/protesters-march-towards-US-Consulate-General-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Protesters march towards the US Consulate General building. Photo: Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_377953" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-377953" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Riot-police-guarding-US-Consulate-General-.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Riot-police-guarding-US-Consulate-General-.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Riot-police-guarding-US-Consulate-General--768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Riot-police-guarding-US-Consulate-General--1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Riot-police-guarding-US-Consulate-General--300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Riot-police-guarding-US-Consulate-General--600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Riot police were guarding the US Consulate General building. Photo: Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_377954" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-377954" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/stay-silent-in-front-of-US-Consulate-General.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/stay-silent-in-front-of-US-Consulate-General.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/stay-silent-in-front-of-US-Consulate-General-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/stay-silent-in-front-of-US-Consulate-General-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/stay-silent-in-front-of-US-Consulate-General-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/stay-silent-in-front-of-US-Consulate-General-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Protesters stay silent in front of the US Consulate General building to show respect. Photo: Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_377956" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-377956" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/riot-police.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/riot-police.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/riot-police-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/riot-police-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/riot-police-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/riot-police-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Riot police on Lower Albert Road. Photo: Asia Times</figcaption></figure>
<p>Protesters then walked along Lower Albert Road and returned to Charter Garden. A prayer meeting was then held in the afternoon before protesters left the site peacefully.</p>
<p>However, the MTR Corp announced the closure of Central station at about 4pm. Riot police arrested several protesters and dispersed the crowd in the station. Clashes were reported between police and protesters in Admiralty and Wan Chai stations.</p>
<p>But as evening set in, riot police were chasing groups of hardcore protesters who blocked roads, vandalized nearby subway stations and set makeshift barricades on fire, AFP reported.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, democracy activist Joshua Wong was arrested on Sunday morning for breaching his bail conditions after returning to Hong Kong from a trip to Taiwan.</p>
<p>Read: <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/fitch-downgrades-hong-kong-as-rallies-drag-on/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fitch downgrades Hong Kong as rallies drag on</a></p>
Ho Chi Minh’s tomb still draws thousands of visitors and is guarded by a dedicated team
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/the-protectors-of-vietnams-embalmed-leader/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/the-protectors-of-vietnams-embalmed-leader/<p>The task of safeguarding the embalmed corpse of Vietnam&#8217;s revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh is grueling. Carefully-selected riflemen work around the clock, watching over the communist nation&#8217;s founding father who died 50 years ago last Monday.</p>
<p>Protecting him is the ultimate patriotic service for men in stiff white uniforms at Ho&#8217;s towering tomb in Hanoi, a monolithic shrine to a man who still pervades public life despite his fading relevance among the youth.</p>
<p>The job is a &#8220;dream come true&#8221; for guard Nguyen Xuan Thang, even if it&#8217;s not always easy. &#8220;We have to have our eyes on everything to deal with any situation that may arise,&#8221; the 41-year-old lieutenant colonel said.</p>
<p>All year round, he works up to four two-hour shifts every day – often outside the tomb in the blistering summer heat, monsoon rains or frigid winter weather.</p>
<p>Some days he works inside the cool, dark chambers where Ho&#8217;s waxy body – his wispy goatee beard still intact – is on display for daily pilgrimages by thousands of schoolchildren, tourists and war veterans who come to pay their respects.</p>
<h4>Never alone</h4>
<p>Even after hours, Ho is never alone – soldiers flank his encased body 24 hours a day.</p>
<p>&#8220;For us who see him every day the emotion is still overwhelming,&#8221; said Thang, who like the rest of his team was hired because of his physical stamina, communist party dedication and easy-on-the-eyes appearance.</p>
<p>Guards like Thang aren&#8217;t the only ones tasked with looking after Uncle Ho, as he is affectionately known in the country. A team of four Russian and seven Vietnamese scientists were hired this year to evaluate his embalmed corpse ahead of the 50th anniversary on September 2.</p>
<p>&#8220;The body of president Ho Chi Minh has been kept in very good shape,&#8221; said Major General Cao Dinh Kiem, a senior member of the team in charge of guarding the mausoleum, which opened in 1975.</p>
<p>Rumors abound in Vietnam that the body might not really be Ho, or that he is sent to Russia every year for maintenance, which Kiem dismissed with a smile.</p>
<p>&#8220;In short, that is not correct,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Leaning on Russian embalming expertise isn&#8217;t new in Vietnam.</p>
<p>Ahead of Ho&#8217;s death in 1969 – and behind his back – his aides turned to allies in the Soviet Union to ask how they preserved their own communist founding father, Vladimir Lenin, who is still entombed in Moscow&#8217;s Red Square.</p>
<p>Vietnam struck up a deal with the USSR to receive embalming materials and guidance from their experts. The deal died after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and Hanoi scrambled to replace it with a commercial arrangement for the exchanges, which remains in place today.</p>
<h4>State secrets</h4>
<p>Considered state secrets, the details of that arrangement cannot be publicly shared, not even with communist allies North Korea or China, which have both preserved former leaders for posterity.</p>
<p>&#8220;In terms of (sharing) the pharmaceutical techniques, it&#8217;s an absolute no,&#8221; said Kiem.</p>
<p>Ho did not live long enough to see the end of the bloody war against the US-backed south in 1975, when North Vietnamese tanks rolled through the former southern capital Saigon, later renamed Ho Chi Minh City.</p>
<p>But Ho did deliver clear burial plans in his will – a request to be cremated and have his ashes modestly displayed in north, central and south Vietnam in a sign of symbolic unity.</p>
<p>&#8220;There should be no stone stele or bronze statue,&#8221; but rather a small ceramic urn on three tree-lined hills for visitors, he wrote his will.</p>
<p>However, eager to capitalize on the popularity of the north&#8217;s communist leader, his aides chose instead to build a grand tomb, drawing inspiration from Lenin&#8217;s mausoleum, the pyramids in Egypt and the Washington Monument.</p>
<p>The powerful symbol of Ho Chi Minh continues to be commandeered today by Vietnam&#8217;s communist leaders. His teachings are invoked in school curricula, political and military training, children&#8217;s books, patriotic songs and on propaganda billboards.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Communist party needs Ho and uses Ho whenever and wherever it can &#8230; there is a Ho for everyone – children, mothers, cadres, bureaucrats, and soldiers,&#8221; said Christopher Goscha, author of <em>Vietnam: A New History</em>.</p>
<p>But for Vietnam&#8217;s booming young population – about half the country is under 30 – Ho figures as a distant historic character, far removed from the thriving capitalism, ubiquitous social media and yearning for freedom that preoccupies most of the smartphone-obsessed youth today.</p>
<p>&#8220;Ho has stiff competition and it&#8217;s only getting more difficult to make him relevant to this younger generation,&#8221; Goscha said.</p>
<p>But for Ho&#8217;s dutiful minders, the communist leader remains a central focus.</p>
<p>Thang and his team busily prepared for an official wreath-laying ceremony for Ho held last Friday, and expected visitor numbers to surge on Monday for the death anniversary, which also happens to be National Day.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have prepared our soldiers spiritually and physically to best serve visitors &#8230; and pay respects to the president,&#8221; Thang said.</p>
<p>– <em>AFP</em></p>
In the small island state, more space is needed as the population continues to grow
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/singapore-plans-a-subterranean-future/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/singapore-plans-a-subterranean-future/<p>Space-starved Singapore has expanded outwards by building into the sea and upwards by constructing high-rises, but planners are now looking underground as they seek new areas for growth.</p>
<p>The nation has carefully managed its rapid growth in recent decades to avoid the problems faced by other fast-developing Asian metropolises, such as overcrowding and traffic chaos.</p>
<p>But with its population of 5.6 million expected to grow steadily in coming years, authorities are now considering how to better use the space below the streets in a city that is just half the size of Los Angeles.</p>
<p>Singapore has already built an underground highway and state-of-the-art air-conditioning system, but is now looking to house more facilities beneath the surface in order to optimize land use above it.</p>
<p>&#8220;We need to consider options for putting critical infrastructure underground,&#8221; said Abhineet Kaul, a Singapore-based public sector specialist at consultancy Frost &amp; Sullivan.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have an increasing need for industrial, commercial, residential and green space on land in Singapore.&#8221;</p>
<figure id="attachment_376320" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class="size-full wp-image-376320" src="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Singapore-underground-01.jpg" alt="" width="1600" height="960" srcset="https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Singapore-underground-01.jpg 1600w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Singapore-underground-01-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Singapore-underground-01-1568x941.jpg 1568w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Singapore-underground-01-300x180.jpg 300w, https://cms.ati.ms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Singapore-underground-01-600x360.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Ongoing construction of an underground Mass Rapid Transit train station in Singapore. Photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman</figcaption></figure>
<p>According to a draft development plan released in March, authorities want to put utilities, transport as well as storage and industrial facilities underground in order to free up land on the surface.</p>
<p>There are as yet no plans to put housing underground, however.</p>
<p>Three-dimensional technology will be used to produce subterranean maps, with three pilot areas targeted initially, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority, which created the development plan.</p>
<h4>Digging deep</h4>
<p>Singapore is the latest city to try to make use of subterranean space.</p>
<p>Finland&#8217;s capital Helsinki has tunnels housing car parks, shopping malls and even swimming pools, while Montreal in Canada has a so-called &#8220;Underground City,&#8221; a tunnel network connecting key points.</p>
<p>In a report commissioned by Samsung about what the world will look like in 50 years, experts predicted the appearance of &#8220;earthscrapers&#8221; – like an inverted skyscraper burrowing downwards for many floors – in an attempt to save space in overcrowded cities.</p>
<p>Singapore&#8217;s main method of expansion has been land reclamation from the sea, which has increased the country&#8217;s area by over a quarter to 720 square kilometers, with most growth happening since independence in 1965.</p>
<p>But reclamation has become more expensive as it moved to deeper waters, while countries that used to sell sand to Singapore have stopped exports due to environmental concerns.</p>
<p>Unregulated sand mining erodes beaches and riverbanks, affecting wildlife and removing natural barriers to flooding, and dredging the seabed can damage ecosystems, green groups say.</p>
<p>Moving facilities underground has advantages beyond saving space, including reduced use of air-conditioning which could save energy in Singapore&#8217;s tropical climate.</p>
<p>Still, building underground in Singapore poses challenges – construction is difficult beneath an already urbanized environment while new projects will compete for space with existing subterranean facilities.</p>
<p>&#8220;Underground construction normally involves the blasting of rocks and if it&#8217;s in the downtown area, you will not be able to use blasting,&#8221; said Chu Jian, a civil and environmental engineering professor at the Nanyang Technological University.</p>
<h4>&#8216;Next frontier&#8217;</h4>
<p>One of the most ambitious underground projects so far in Singapore is a system that pumps chilled water through pipes to cool buildings around the city-state&#8217;s popular waterfront district of Marina Bay.</p>
<p>Buildings which use the centralized system – rather than relying entirely on their own air-conditioners – have reduced energy consumption by about 40%, said Foo Yang Kwang, chief engineer of Singapore District Cooling, SP Group, which is behind the project.</p>
<p>Reduced energy use has enabled the buildings to slash their annual carbon dioxide emissions by 34,500 tonnes, which is equivalent to taking 10,000 cars off the road, he said.</p>
<p>Other current subterranean facilities in Singapore include Southeast Asia&#8217;s longest underground expressway, measuring 12 kilometers, the metro train, an ammunition depot and rock caverns beneath the seabed which are used to store oil.</p>
<p>NTU, one of the city&#8217;s top institutes of higher education, is considering building labs and even classrooms underground, according to Chu.</p>
<p>But he said shifting things underground is just one way of coping as the city-state grows: &#8220;It is the next frontier, but not the final frontier.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am confident that we will be able to figure out other ways to create new space.&#8221;</p>
<p><em>– AFP</em></p>
While autonomous vehicles, the IOT and digitized medical devices become fully enabled, governments are losing their power to protect
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/cybersecurity-is-urgently-needed-say-experts/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/cybersecurity-is-urgently-needed-say-experts/<p>Asked if they anticipated a cyber attack causing large-scale loss of life within the next 20 years, four of the five experts sitting on a cybersecurity panel at the Seoul Defense Dialog on Friday raised their hands.</p>
<p>That show of hands, which took place as the three-day conference ended in the South Korean capital, provided mute evidence of the perils now embedded in the borderless, ubiquitous and hard-to-regulate world wide web.</p>
<p>With 5G networks enabling autonomous vehicles – both cars and drones – and fully empowering the Internet of Things (IOT), and at a time when digital devices and medical devices may soon become routinely embedded in human bodies, the risks are surging.</p>
<p>While awareness of the dangers exists among experts, the costs and scope required to ensure effective cybersecurity are troubling barriers, particularly for developing nations. And individuals, who are now reliant on cyberspace for both personal and professional activities, lack an awareness of the dangers as both non-state and state actors upgrade their malicious capabilities.</p>
<h4>Raised risks</h4>
<p>The problems of cyber insecurity have long been recognized, but are far from being resolved – if, indeed, they ever can be.</p>
<p>“In 1998, the director of the CIA said that we are basing our future on resources we have not learned to protect yet,” Tomas Zdzikot, the Polish Minister of Defense, said. “Things have changed but we have not learned to protect all our resources yet.&#8221;</p>
<p>The risk of surging digitization is double-edged – increasing dependency on connected devices creates both new vulnerabilities and avenues of attack. And with 5G networks now enabling connected cars, and with some 50 billion things expected to be connected via the Internet of Things (IOT) within 2-3 years, these vulnerabilities are expanding 360 degrees.</p>
<p>“Our dependency increases as we relinquish more and more control to devices – smart bridges, smart cars and now we are talking medical devices that are inside us,” said Rain Ottis, professor of Cyber Security Management at Estonia’s Tallin University. “At the same time, the capabilities to attack also increase.”</p>
<p>These risks are being recognized by governments.</p>
<p>“The EU and our states are all concerned about malicious use of ICT both by non-state actors and increasingly by state actors,” said Pavel Maciej Herczynski, Managing Director of the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy and Crisis Response body.</p>
<p>“Misusing ICT for malicious purposes affects the entire global community: governments, businesses, citizens and our armed forces. The scope and severity of such incidents appear to be increasing – as are associated costs.”</p>
<p>“Cyberspace enables statecraft, but when we think of cybersecurity and national strategy, we do it in an environment where there is much evidence of criminal and state-supported activity – IP disruptions, interventions in political processes and so on,” added Celia Perins, the First Assistant Secretary for Strategic Policy at the Australian Ministry of Defense.</p>
<p>She noted that Canberra had plenty of experience with malicious attacks, including DOS assaults and attacks on parliament. “We are highly alert to cyber as tool of statecraft.”</p>
<h4>Attacks on all fronts</h4>
<p>The scale of the assaults is staggering. In 2015, there were 77,000 cyberattacks on networks supporting the US government, Zdzikot stated, and it is getting worse.</p>
<p>In Australia at present, defense-related nets are “under constant attack – tens of thousands of incidents monthly,” Perkins said. &#8220;We need to build resilience from the inside out.”</p>
<p>“Cyberattacks on critical infrastructure started in the 1990s,” Zdzikot said. “That is why it is so important for every nation to create national rules and obligations that will guarantee that companies that operate the key infrastructure will be safe.”</p>
<p>And it is not just about defense and protection. Cyberspace is increasingly being seen as a theater of combat. In 2016, at the NATO Summit in Warsaw, cyberspace officially became a new operational domain, Zdkikot noted, demanding related planning and capability acquisitions by armed forces.</p>
<p>Still, even in the highly secure military space, there are multiple backdoors. “In NATO, the suppliers of logistics bases are 90% private companies, and critical infrastructure is run by private companies,” Zdzikot said.</p>
<p>A separate area from state-sponsored cyber warfare is cybercrime. Last year, in the 20 leading industrialized countries, more than one billion people suffered from cybercrimes such as ID theft or the theft of money, Zdzikot noted.</p>
<p>“The economic effects of cybercrime are devastating – breathtaking – and the figures are only growing and growing,” Herczynski added. “You don’t have borders … it is extremely difficult to track and prosecute.”</p>
<p>Yet the borderless aspect of the internet is most problematic beyond the criminal sphere. “Straight-up cybercrime – stealing money – is illegal everywhere. You can go to another country to prosecute, so it is a matter of cooperation,” said Ottis. “It is when national interest, politics and ideology come into play that trouble starts.”</p>
<h4>Why is cyberspace dangerous?</h4>
<p>Cyberspace as a domain has largely been created by commercial companies, rather than government infrastructure providers. More data is now being collected, analyzed and utilized by private firms than by accountable governments.</p>
<p>In terms of their influence and their numbers of users or inhabitants, popular social networks compare to large states.</p>
<p>Klon Kitchen, Senior Research Fellow at the US Heritage Foundation, compared states’ loss of their previous &#8220;monopoly on intelligence” to the way nations lost their “monopoly on violence” to terrorism.</p>
<p>“[Digital] companies are in the business of intelligence, they produce and consume and investigate as much data as possible to understand and shape human behavior. They call it marketing, governments call it intelligence,” he said. “These companies are not aligned with a geographical country but have the level of influence of a government.”</p>
<p>Adding further levels of risk to the cyber realm is its status as a relatively new and poorly understood frontier, where first movers are highly risk-tolerant.</p>
<p>“As any new domain emerges – and space is one – it’s not surprising that people will be adventurous and bold when it is hard for us to understand the nature of that domain,” Perkins said.</p>
<p>Policing this perilous terrain is problematic – especially for poorer or smaller states.</p>
<p>“The establishment of [South Korea’s] Cyber Command and related institutions has taken too many resources and attention,” said Min Byoung-won, a professor of Political Science and International Relations at Ewha Womans’ University in Seoul.</p>
<p>“I think this will cause a lot of problems for many developing countries. We have to find a fair paradigm for refining and regulating cybersecurity.”</p>
<h4>First line of defense</h4>
<p>In Poland, Zdzikot oversaw the creation of a dedicated police cybercrime unit. “I believe in building structures,” he said, but added that the first level of defense lies with the individual.</p>
<p>“We should not do in cyberspace and on our smartphones what we would not do in the physical world,” the minister said. “You generally don’t share your credit card number with friends and you don’t usually open anything that comes to you if you don’t know who sent it.”</p>
<p>The widespread take-up of digital technologies means the space is now no longer about entertainment or socializing – it is far more central to lives.</p>
<p>“The time when cyberspace was only a place to play games and chat with friends is gone,” Zdzikot said. “It is a place where you do most of your operations and there are more and more things that you cannot do without technologies and networks. But it is not a safe place.”</p>
<p>“It is essential to work at the baseline using the crime analogy – we lock our houses and do not leave valuables lying around,” Perkins added.</p>
<p>She noted that Australia’s 2016 National Cyber Strategy promoted local responsibility, and included government initiatives to support businesses and organizations. A public information campaign has also been undertaken to inform the public about what the secretive Australian Signals Directorate does, in terms of its organization and mission.</p>
<p>“Nobody will do cybersecurity for you,” said Zdzikot. “In your organization or company or office, mostly it is said by employees that it is an ‘issue for the IT guys,’ but in fact, it is also your responsibility.”</p>
<h4>Public-private sector</h4>
<p>Cooperation is the key to cybersecurity and a core area of that is public-private cooperation – especially given the power that corporate executives now wield through digital networks.</p>
<p>“A CEO can make the day or ruin the day of hundreds of millions of people,” said Ottis. “States don’t build this environment. Typically, it is the private sector that builds things.”</p>
<p>Yet states must assert regulatory control.</p>
<p>“States do not build this environment but it is up to states to regulate the environment in cooperation with the private sector and civil society,” Macej Herczynski said. “Is cyberspace something entirely new that requires new rules and regulations that has not existed so far? Or is what we have developed over years and decades exactly as applicable to cyberspace as it is offline?”</p>
<p>In terms of the EU, the “commitment and conviction” is that cyberspace is “no different way from any other offline reality,” he added. “All international law that has been developed over decades applies to cyber exactly in the same way it applies in normal life.”</p>
<p>“Nobody denies the huge role of the private sector, and the private sector should be part of the conversation,” Macej Herczynski added. “But we should not forget the responsibility of governments. The private sector is driven by business, governments have the responsibility to protect.”</p>
<p>Following the migration of such vast quantities of intelligence into the private sector, nations are acting. “States, to reassert their sovereignty, are beginning to squeeze these companies to bring them into compliance,” said Kitchen. “In the US, this is why the CEOs of Google and Facebook were called into Congress.”</p>
<h4>Cross-border cooperation</h4>
<p>Given the borderless nature of the internet, cross-border cooperation is equally critical. Partly, this relates to hardware.</p>
<p>Addressing the issue of component security, which has been highlighted recently by US allegations of security backdoors built into products sold by 5G network equipment provider Huawei, Zdikot said: “A safe supply chain is being discussed all over the world – especially in 5G. Of course, the best way is to have your own capability, but it is not always possible to develop by yourself, so the next step is to cooperate with allies and like-minded countries.”</p>
<p>Global legislation is another area. “We are reviewing legislation so it supports the activities of our apparatus, foreign and domestic, and addresses these challenges,” said Perkins. “A core part is to address and consider traditional boundaries between offshore and onshore crimes – understanding these boundaries is a difficult conversation to have.”</p>
<p>Macej Herczynski cited the work of the UN Working Group to advance peace and stability in cyberspace. “The framework is based on the application of existing international laws and the UN Charter, complimented by universal laws of responsible state behavior and regional confidence-building methods,” he said. “Cyberspace is not the Wild West, the rule of law fully applies.”</p>
<p>In terms of international conventions, the Convention on Cybercrime of the Council of Europe, also known as the Budapest Convention, serves as a guideline for countries developing national legislation against cybercrime and as a framework for international cooperation between states. About 70 nations have joined.</p>
<p>“The Budapest Convention is the only norm and standard that enables us to work closely in order to fight cybercrime,” he said. But agreements and treaties only go so far.</p>
<p>“The challenge for the international community is to create goal posts, to create rules and obligations that have to be obeyed,” warned Zdzikot. “We talk about ‘confidence-building’ and ‘cooperation,’ but there are a lot of states that simply do not care about rules – they act very aggressively in cyberspace.”</p>
<p>In areas when states aggressively prosecute cyberattacks, capitals need to act. Increasingly, this means naming names. “Australia attributes cyberattacks when they occur [for reasons of] transparency and resilience,” Perkins said.</p>
<p>And the EU now has official recourse to take political and or economic action. “Now the EU is in a position to respond to a cyberattack by imposing sanctions,” Macej Herczynski said. “This clearly shows that rules that apply offline should apply online.”</p>
<p>Beyond sanctions lies military action.</p>
<p>“Our task is to build capability within the armed forces to combat hybrid threats,” said Zdikot. “We&#8217;re talking about confidence-building cooperation, but there are a lot of states that simply do not care about rules – they act very aggressively in cyberspace. We have to be prepared to defend the country against people who are not coming in the future – they are coming now, day by day.”</p>
<h4>Uncovering vulnerabilities</h4>
<p>When it comes to assessing cyber strategies, companies, organizations and states need to take a leaf out of the military book and conduct war games.</p>
<p>“How do you know your strategy works? It is one thing to write it on paper or announce it to the press, but when push comes to shove, will it actually work?” asked Ottis. “Set up an exercise, throw some scenarios at people who execute your strategy and see where it fails.”</p>
<p>The aim is not to find where it works, but where it fails, in order to plug gaps and find out where vulnerabilities exist and where accountabilities are.</p>
<p>Perkins noted that Australia held a major, national-level exercise in 2018 and that this risk-based approach is expanding. “We are working on the cyber resilience of critical infrastructure,” she said. “By regularly exercising, we find where accountabilities lie and how capable we are in the event of a cyber event.”</p>
<p>What are the common failures undercovered by this kind of highly sophisticated war-gaming?</p>
<p>“This wish to have full control, which is not realistic as most information you need is not in your jurisdiction. It will not be easily accessible and then it may take months or years to analyze the data,” Ottis said. “From the centralized point of view, you are setting yourself up for failure.”</p>
<h4>Through a screen, darkly</h4>
<p>Overall, despite the increasing resources and interest in cyber security, the future looks dangerous. Pro-active campaigns are essential to start ameliorating risks, Ottis advised.</p>
<p>“Users should demand some basic things – if I have my phone in my bedroom, employees of the [service provider] should not be listening to what I am doing, and the company should not relinquish that information to the government,” he said. “We should push for a more transparent system where companies are more responsible and where government makes a commitment not to abuse these companies.”</p>
<p>However, he warned: “Currently, we do not have this.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, traditional mechanisms of accountability and power are being eroded. The move of so many operations and activities from an offline sphere that took place within terrestrial boundaries to an online space that is borderless, and where so many players are non-governmental, is undercutting the power of the state in profound ways.</p>
<p>“The state is losing power and authority in this field,” said Min. “It is the beginning of the decline of the modern sovereign system that has defined the international system since the [17<sup>th</sup> century] treaty of Westphalia.”</p>
<p>These developments and the accelerating development digital technologies point to frightening future scenarios.</p>
<p>Mankind is now heading for “a very dystopian environment where we will have hundreds of billions of devices around us and inside us and we won’t know what they do and who controls them,” Ottis warned. “I don’t think we want to go there, but we are moving steadily in that direction.”</p>
Commercials for many companies have received a backlash from Hindu nationalist trolls
]]>https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/indias-private-sector-faces-social-media-storm/https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/article/indias-private-sector-faces-social-media-storm/<p>Indian conservative groups have condemned &#8220;liberal&#8221; advertisements run by multinational companies. &#8220;Offended&#8221; Hindu nationalists are calling for a boycott on a range of enterprises, including fast-food chains, tea-trading firms, online media-service providers and e-commerce companies.</p>
<p>As a form of protest, online trolls are writing negative reviews of the products and services of the offending firms, as well as posting videos of consumer goods being discarded.</p>
<p>Snapdeal, an e-retail firm, came under fire in 2015 after its then brand ambassador, Indian actor Amir Khan, spoke about rising intolerance across India. Offended by the statement, many users called him a &#8220;traitor,&#8221; gave Snapdeal a one-star rating and demanded a boycott of the app. The company has since decided not to<a href="https://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/Aamir-Khan-loses-Snapdeal-contract/article14062507.ece"> renew Khan&#8217;s contract.</a></p>
<p>An increase in such incidents has made the impact online trolls can have on businesses and individuals hard to ignore.</p>
<p>A 2018 advertisement by Hindustan Unilever’s (HUL) Brooke Bond Red Label – a popular tea brand – resurfaced in August and was the latest victim as #BoycottRedLabel trended on Twitter.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VnwHhcbUChc" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p>The commercial shows a customer looking to take home a statue of Hindu god Ganesha. While showing the customer around his shop, the statue-maker talks about Hindu traditions, but as time for <em>namaaz,</em> or afternoon prayer, approaches, he wears a skull cap revealing him to be a Muslim.</p>
<p>Visibly uncomfortable, the customer starts to leave. Noticing this, the Muslim man says <em>“Bhaijaan, yeh bhi toh ibadat hai”</em>, or brother, this is also worship.&#8221;</p>
<p>Aimed at showcasing secularism and harmony, people on the internet took the advertisement as an attack on the Hindu religion and condemned the company for it&#8217;s &#8216;anti-Hindu&#8217; stand.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Hindus can live without Brook Bonds Red Label tea. Let us boycott it for its fake secularism. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BoycottRedLabel?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BoycottRedLabel</a> <a href="https://t.co/eqB0If4h5R">pic.twitter.com/eqB0If4h5R</a> <a href="https://t.co/eu3hr0rGQM">pic.twitter.com/eu3hr0rGQM</a></p>
<p>— Sadhana Karekar (@sadhanakarekar) <a href="https://twitter.com/sadhanakarekar/status/1168016378315464705?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 1, 2019</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BoycottRedLabel?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BoycottRedLabel</a> Who insult Hindus, Ganesh Chaturthi on Hindu Festival, Who teach fake secularism to hindus through advertisement. <a href="https://twitter.com/KiranKS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KiranKS</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Unilever?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Unilever</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TVMohandasPai?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TVMohandasPai</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/mechirubhat?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mechirubhat</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ShefVaidya?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ShefVaidya</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/HinduJagrutiOrg?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HinduJagrutiOrg</a> <a href="https://t.co/yB1EZWkbwD">pic.twitter.com/yB1EZWkbwD</a></p>
<p>— Mohan Gowda (@HJS_Mohan) <a href="https://twitter.com/HJS_Mohan/status/1167994719898460161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 1, 2019</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Many alleged that Hindus, who enjoy the majority status in India, were being shown as intolerant and were, in fact, the victims of selective targeting.</p>
<p>While emotions against HUL&#8217;s campaign ran high, the claims of &#8216;hurt-Hindus&#8217; do not add up statistically. According to the <a href="https://www.factchecker.in/our-new-hate-crime-database-76-of-victims-over-10-years-minorities-90-attacks-reported-since-2014/">hate-crime watchdog, c</a>rimes against Muslims have increased in the last five years. Muslims, who comprise only 14% of India’s population, were the victims in 62% of cases (158 of 254).</p>
<p>In June, a video of a Muslim man tied up, bleeding and begging for mercy went viral on social media. He was forced to say the Hindu chant <em>&#8216;Jai Shri Ram&#8217; </em>(Glory to Lord Ram) and was lynched in the eastern state of Jharkhand. A few days later, a Muslim cab driver was beaten up<a href="https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/crime/cabbie-beaten-up-in-diva-forced-to-chant-jai-shri-ram/articleshow/69968844.cms" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> by a group of men</a> near Mumbai. When he begged for mercy, the mob asked him to chant <em>Jai Shri Ram.</em></p>
<p>As many as 254 religious identity-based hate crimes were <a href="http://p.factchecker.in/">reported</a> in India between January 1, 2009, and October 29, 2018. Of these, about 90% of the attacks were reported after May 2014, when the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came to power. Of the 172 cases, 86% cases involved Hindu perpetrators.</p>
<h4>Boycott not new</h4>
<p>Hindu nationalist trolls often attempt to polarize an advertisement and give it a communal spin. In March 2019, an advertisement for HUL&#8217;s detergent brand Surf Excel also saw <a href="https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/03/opinion/ad-on-hindu-muslim-unity-gets-far-right-in-a-twist/">demands for a boycott on social media</a>.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zq7mN8oi8ds" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p>The ad, based on the Hindu festival Holi, showed a girl trying to protect her Muslim friend from getting colors on him before he can offer <em>namaz</em>. The right-wing trolls labelled the ad as an attempt to promote love jihad- a conspiracy theory that alleges Muslim men target Hindu girls to marry so they can convert them.</p>
<p>The commercial irked many right-wing supporters, who posted videos of the detergent powder being dumped and demanded a boycott.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Boycott Unilever and boycott surf excel <a href="https://t.co/lUCNmM5FBT">pic.twitter.com/lUCNmM5FBT</a></p>
<p>— Raghu pandit (@Raghupa04379097) <a href="https://twitter.com/Raghupa04379097/status/1104991586461646848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2019</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Taking offense to an ad which shows tolerance and reflects the discrimination faced by minorities in India has become more common. Incidents of communal violence rose by <a href="https://www.indiaspend.com/2017-the-year-of-hate-crime-10632/">28 % </a>between 2014 and 2017. The year 2017 recorded the highest death toll at 11 and the highest number of incidents of hate violence – 37 – since 2010, according to I<a href="http://data.indiaspend.com/hate-crime">ndiaSpend.</a></p>
<p>Accusing Netflix of “deep-rooted Hinduphobia,&#8221; far-right regional political party and BJP ally Shiv Sena also <a href="https://thewire.in/politics/shiv-se